An Española mother and daughter were arrested March 31 for narcotics-trafficking after anonymous tipsters notified police, according to court documents.
The tipsters described a gray car they said Claudette Manzanares, 37, used when dealing drugs and pointed out the apartment in the Apple Valley public housing neighborhood where she was living with her mother, Lucille Romero, 59, court documents state.
State Police criminal agents had also seen the car in areas known for drug trafficking, documents state. These included three locations on or near Riverside Drive: Allsup’s gas station, the Española Car Wash CHECK and the Big Rock Casino’s parking lot.
The agents provided the following account of the pair’s arrest in court documents filed in Rio Arriba County Magistrate Court:
Agents saw Manzanares driving out of the Apple Valley area March 31 with Romero in the front passenger seat. The car was stopped and a heavy smell of marijuana was detected inside the vehicle. A large amount of cash and a bottle of prescription pills were in plain view next to Romero.
Manzanares told police she had a marijuana joint in the car and prescription pills, but couldn’t find the joint, saying Romero must have thrown it out. Manzanares also pointed out heroin inside the car’s center console, saying her husband, a heroin addict, sent her to purchase it.
In addition, a plastic baggie containing heroin, which Manzanares said she’d forgotten she had, and cash were found in her pockets. She further surrendered four $20 bindles of heroin from her car and disclosed she had $2,200 cash in her purse.
Three circular aluminum foil packets containing heroin were found on Romero. Both were arrested for trafficking a controlled substance. They bonded out of jail April 2 after each posting $10,500 bonds, documents state.
In 2000, Manzanares and Romero were charged on the same date with two counts of attempting to bring contraband into a prison, according to an online court records database. Manzanares pleaded guilty to one count and the other was dismissed; Romero’s charges were dropped, the database states.
Manzanares and Romero could not be reached for comment. Santa Fe Civic Housing Authority, which oversees Apple Valley public housing, was not aware of the arrests when contacted Tuesday.