GPD find 99 bags of heroin, arrest two on felonies

GUILDERLAND — A large quantity of heroin was found packaged for sale in a vehicle that was stopped on Route 155 early Saturday morning, police say.

At 2:19 a.m., on Jan. 10, Guilderland Police officers approached a vehicle that had been observed parked in the middle of Route 155 and then had backed up into Regency Park Apartments and pulled back out into the road, according to an arrest report.

The driver, Ashlei Foster-Morrison, 26, of 16 Almond St., apartment 3, Amsterdam, had a paper temporary New York State driver’s license, and officers observed that she had glassy eyes and impaired motor coordination, and was slow and lethargic, the report said.

Foster-Morrison failed portions of a field sobriety test, but registered negative for alcohol on a pre-screening device.

While Foster-Morrison was being screened for alcohol, the passenger in the vehicle, Jermaine Staley, 31, of 401 County Highway 132, Hagaman, took a plastic bag, containing 99 smaller bags of heroin, out of his waistband and attempted to put it in Foster-Morrison’s coat pocket, the report said.

A check of Staley’s license showed that he had an active bench warrant out of the Schenectady City Court for failure to pay a fine.

Foster-Morrison was arrested for criminal sale of a controlled substance, a felony; driving under the influence of drugs, first-offense, a misdemeanor; and failure to obey a traffic device, failure to stop at a stop sign, and a parking violation, all infractions.

Staley was arrested for third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, a felony.

Both were sent to Albany County’s jail and Foster-Morrison submitted to an evaluation by a drug recognition expert, according to a press release from the police department.

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