A traffic stop for drunken driving led law enforcement to arrest a couple on a collection of charges after the man and woman openly discussed hidden contraband on police surveillance video.
Riverside police stopped Anthony X. Aranda, 25 of the 4000 block of Center Avenue in Lyons, at 2:09 a.m. Oct. 2 for driving erratically and speeding in the 2700 block of Harlem Avenue, police reported.
Aranda failed field sobriety tests, and he refused a portable breath test. He was arrested for drunken driving and put in the back of a police car.
The Riverside officer checked on the passenger, Imelda Marines, 25 of the 6900 block of West Pershing Road in Stickney, and found that she wasn’t sober and couldn’t drive the car. At the same time, Aranda was caught on the police car camera system talking to himself about how he needed to get home right away to get rid of drugs and weapons.
A record check showed Marines had two outstanding warrants for her arrest, according to Riverside police. One was for drunken driving and the other was for a traffic offense, both issued by the Cook County Sheriff’s Police Department.
Marines was arrested, and she openly stated on video surveillance while being taken to the police station that she hid methamphetamines inside her body cavity so police wouldn’t find them.
The officer learned of the drugs and weapons in the Lyons house and inside Marines at the police station when he reviewed the video. An officer searched Marines and found the drugs.
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Marines was charged with felony possession of a controlled substance, obstructing police, and she was processed under the two outstanding warrants.
Her criminal history includes narcotics possession and obstructing police.
Investigators searched the Center Avenue house in Lyons with a warrant, and they found a sawed-off shotgun, cocaine, cannabis and drug paraphernalia used for the manufacture and delivery of narcotics, according to Riverside police.
Police found the house was “deplorable,” and the home was boarded up and condemned after the search.
Aranda was charged with DUI, speeding, improper lane use, unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, possession of cocaine and cannabis, manufacture and delivery of cocaine, manufacture and delivery of cannabis and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Police say Aranda is a self-proclaimed and documented Ambrose gang member and a convicted felon. He has a history of weapons charges, drug charges and resisting police.
