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CBS4 News Miami 5/17/2018: A traffic stop by Miami-Dade Police lead to a stunning discovery this week: a car filled with a half dozen assault rifles and pistols, $20,000 in cash and more than 10 bottles with liquids that you normally need prescriptions for including promethazine with cocaine...
CBS4 obtained a photo exclusively from Miami-Dade police showing the evidence in this case...Police have arrested 33-year-old Ras Cates and 20-year-old Lizmixell Batista...Cates initially got out of his car...(and) said he was armed...had a concealed weapons permit to carry a firearm...(and) had two additional firearms...When they opened the trunk, that’s when they were in for a surprise,” said...Detective Alvaro Zabaleta...
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Just another day at the office, right? Not quite -- let the self-snitching begin!
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Wat-If.com: ...Body-camera footage from the incident showed an officer never got Cates’ permission to search his vehicle’s trunk but “instead commanded defendant to pop the trunk,” prosecutors wrote.
...(The) defense attorney said he found it “disturbing” that police “went on TV and engaged in incendiary speculation without knowing the facts or even acknowledging the rampant violations of my clients’ constitutional rights.”
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CBS4 News Miami 9/6/2018: ...Officers ran the firearms and permits – they all came back as legal.
The police...told Cates to pop the trunk in order to secure the guns...officers spotted three more guns and a backpack that they said was emitting a strong odor of marijuana. The officers...searched the bag...and found what appeared to be marijuana oil...a small amount of marijuana and four bottles of what they suspected was liquid codeine...(T)hey also seized $19,934 from Batista’s purse suspecting it was drug money...Batista explained that hers was a cash only job...
A judge later ruled that the money was to be returned because there was no probable cause for the seizure...The state also declined to press charges after determining “(The) search of the trunk was illegal. Officers did not have...authority or consent to search...”
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The police are also obliged the pay the couple's legal fees. A little patience on Detective Zabaleta's part would have gone a long way, especially since the evidence so clearly favored the suspects. Here's hoping that the cops responsible will be "surprised" with a transfer to the police canine kennel cleaning unit!