Opinion
December 27, 1990
Appeal from the Supreme Court, New York County, Joan Carey, J.
Police officers assigned to the Drug Enforcement Task Force arranged a "buy-and-bust" operation on March 26, 1986 using a known confidential informant. A detective maintained surveillance over the informant. The informant met defendant and another person at a designated location; a bag containing two kilograms of cocaine was recovered from defendant's car.
The hearing court correctly denied defendant's motion to suppress the evidence since the information provided by the informant, which was verified by the detective's observations, satisfied the two-pronged requirement of Aguilar-Spinelli (Aguilar v. Texas, 378 U.S. 108; Spinelli v. United States, 393 U.S. 410). This, combined with the detective's observation of what he recognized as a kilo package of cocaine in defendant's vehicle, provided probable cause for defendant's arrest and the incidental search of his car (People v. McRay, 51 N.Y.2d 594). The trial evidence was sufficient to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant knowingly possessed the cocaine (People v. Reisman, 29 N.Y.2d 278, cert. denied 405 U.S. 1041).
Concur — Ross, J.P., Rosenberger, Kassal, Ellerin and Rubin, JJ.