Opinion
October 21, 2004.
Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Carol Berkman, J.) rendered October 29, 2001, convicting defendant, upon his plea of guilty, of criminal possession of a controlled substance, and sentencing him to a term of 1 to 3 years, unanimously affirmed.
Before: Tom, J.P., Sullivan, Williams, Lerner and Sweeny, JJ.
The court properly denied defendant's suppression motion. The experienced narcotics detective had probable cause to arrest defendant when, in a drug-prone location, he observed defendant receive what appeared to be a tinfoil packet ( see People v. Jones, 90 NY2d 835; People v. McRay, 51 NY2d 594). In any event, these observations at least entitled the detective to make a common-law inquiry, and defendant's patently false responses to the detective's initial questions clearly raised the level of suspicion to probable cause.
We perceive no basis for reducing the sentence.