An Alcalde man is facing a drug possession charge after the car he was in was stopped because the driver had a dog in her lap.
Manuel Salais, 40, is charged with one count of possession of a controlled substance.
Rio Arriba County Deputy Dustin Hall wrote in a criminal complaint for his arrest that he stopped a car when he saw the driver had a dog in her lap, meaning she wasn’t paying attention to the road. During the stop, it was learned that the passenger wasn’t wearing a seatbelt. Because of this, Hall asked the passenger for his identification, he wrote.
Once he ran Salais through the dispatch system, he found the man was wanted on a district court bench warrant and arrested him on that.
When he searched him, he found a plastic container with a white substance, suspected to be methamphetamine, Hall wrote.
When it was weighed, it was 2.3 grams.
Hall then charged Salais with drug possession. He was later arraigned on June 9.
That district court warrant was for failure to appear at his arraignment in the district court case in April.
He was ordered released on April 18 in the district court case.
In that case, he is accused of possessing a stolen 9mm pistol and selling a gun without proper licensing or documentation, a case brought by the Española City Police, when an officer allegedly saw a hand-to-hand drug transaction happen from their car.