Men charged with possession of heroin, pot

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Phil Stake
Staff writer

GALLUP — A bystander to a domestic violence incident at Bubany Park “brought attention to himself,” June 3 and was later arrested for possessing heroin.

Bernard Ramirez, 49, was allegedly sitting in the park as a lone adult among a group of children, according to a news release issued this week by McKinley County Sheriff’s Lt. George Justice, spokesman for the Middle Rio Grande Valley Drug Task Force. After resolving the domestic violence call to which they’d responded, Gallup Police officers approached Ramirez and asked if he was there with any of the children.

Ramirez said he was not.

“Officers began to investigate the reason the subject was at the park and found the subject to be in possession of heroin and several syringes,” Justice said.

Police called task force agents to the scene, who then confirmed that the substance was in fact heroin. They arrested Ramirez for possession of heroin, a fourth-degree felony, and possession of drug paraphernalia, a misdemeanor. Ramirez told police he had very recently moved to Gallup from Albuquerque, according to Justice.

In an unrelated incident, police arrested Aquilino Lopez, 27, June 4, after finding in his car about 14 grams of alleged marijuana and 24 grams of alleged cocaine, according to a news release issued this week by McKinley County Sheriff’s Lt. George Justice, spokesman for the Middle Rio Grande Valley Drug Task Force.

Justice said a deputy stopped Lopez for speeding and found that his license had been revoked. The deputy arrested Lopez and found him to be in possession of the marijuana ... an inventory of Lopez’s car surfaced the cocaine. The deputy contacted task force agents, who confirmed that the substances were in fact marijuana and cocaine.

Lopez was booked for second-degree felony possession with intent to traffic cocaine, in addition to several misdemeanors.