Eddie Morelo Jr.
Santa Barbara County – Some people have all the luck; in this case patrol officers of the Lompoc Police Department must have four-leaf clovers in their wallets as a simple traffic violation became a major drug bust.
Proving once again the importance of being a careful, law-abiding motorist—particularly if one is engaged in felonious activity—25-year-old Lompoc resident Eddie Morelo Jr. might not be sitting in Santa Barbara County Jail if he had been more careful driving through the streets of this central California city on the afternoon of May 18th.
It was just after 2:20 p.m., according to an unnamed spokesman for the Lompoc Police Department, when Morello Jr. “was pulled over by Lompoc Police for a traffic stop” that all parties presumed to have been fairly routine in nature. But when Morello Jr. was found to be unable to provide the cops with a valid driver’s license, he became eligible for arrest on the scene, and that’s exactly what transpired.
In such cases, the vehicle driven by the unlicensed individual is commonly impounded and taken to a nearby tow yard where a routine inventory of any contents is made so that the vehicle owner is protected against theft and city officials are likewise protected from claims of theft. In this case, however, the contents of Morello’s vehicle were of considerable interest to law enforcement when officers discovered “5.1 ounces of suspected methamphetamine, 4.9 grams of suspected marijuana, and 0.8 grams of suspected heroin,” all with a reputed commercial value in excess of $14,000.
Morello Jr., already in handcuffs for the motor vehicle violation, was subsequently arrested and booked into Lompoc City Jail on a charge of transportation of controlled substances.
Photo: Courtesy Lompoc City Jail Booking
