Photo: Samuel Sullivan
Ventura County – 26-year-old Thousand Oaks resident Samuel Sullivan was just driving around minding his own business on the night of January 15th when he looked up at his rearview mirror and saw the flashing red lights of a Ventura County Sheriff’s Patrol Unit right behind him.
Undoubtedly curious as to why he was being pulled over in a routine traffic stop, Sullivan quickly learned that he had committed a minor traffic violation.
He soon learned that the law enforcement personnel he was now confronted by were no mere traffic cops, but were detectives of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department’s Narcotics Street Team attached to the City of Thousand Oaks Directed Enforcement Unit.
According to VCSD spokesman Det. Sgt. Eduardo Malagon, during the course of their contact with Sullivan, detectives quickly determined that he was “under the influence of a controlled substance.”
At that point, Sullivan was invited to alight from his vehicle and subject himself and his vehicle to a search. The cop patting Sullivan down on the side of the road found “a syringe loaded with heroin” in his pants pocket. The other cops conducting a quick search of Sullivan’s car found “a loaded, stolen firearm on the front passenger seat.” That gun was soon determined to have been “unlawfully obtained” by Sullivan.
With that evidence so quickly at hand, Sullivan was taken into custody and transported to Ventura County Jail, where he was booked on multiple narcotics and firearms possession charges.
Photo: Courtesy Ventura County Jail Booking
