Suspect Arrested for Drug Possession, Weapons Charges at Construction Site
BERKELEY – Police officers responding to a trespassing report in the Berkeley Hills neighborhood on Sunday morning found a man standing on top of a portable office located inside a construction site, and arrested him on drug and weapons charges.
A security company contacted police to report a suspicious person trespassing and an unauthorized truck at a monitored construction site on the 200 block of Tunnel Road shortly before 5 a.m. on July 2.
The suspect behaved erratically when officers arrived to investigate. Police said the suspect admitted he recently used cocaine, and that he had more drugs in his possession.
Officers searched the suspect and found a bundle containing a powdery white substance, which later tested positive as being methamphetamine.
During a subsequent search of the suspect’s truck, a loaded concealed firearm was recovered. A computer check of the gun’s serial number indicated it was reported stolen in Louisiana in 2014.
Police said further investigation revealed that suspect was previously convicted of a felony, and was prohibited from possessing a firearm.
The suspect 38-year-old Luis Alberto Cruz Rojas, of Yuba City, was arrested at 5:42 a.m. and booked at Berkeley City Jail, before being later transported to Alameda County’s Santa Rita Jail in Dublin.
Rojas is accused of committing seven felonies. He’s charged with possession of a controlled substance, carrying a concealed firearm in a vehicle, possession of a concealed stolen firearm, carrying a concealed firearm with ammunition, carrying a loaded firearm, carrying a loaded stolen firearm, and carrying an unregistered loaded firearm.
Rojas remains in custody in lieu of $90,000 bail.
