UPPER MANHATTAN — NYPD officers hit the jackpot Thursday night when they found a not-so-secret hidden compartment stuffed with cash, a gun and drugs inside a vehicle in Washington Heights, police sources said.
Victor Figueroa, 38, had double-parked his 2000 Lincoln LS sedan next to a fire hydrant on Amsterdam Avenue, near West 172nd Street, about 8:30 p.m. on Nov. 9, sources said. He left his car to get a plate of food from a street vendor, and when he returned there were plainclothes officers from the Manhattan North Auto Larceny Task Force waiting beside his vehicle, police sources said.
After a brief conversation, Figueroa allegedly agreed to allow officers search his vehicle. Secreted behind the vehicle's glove box, officers found a secret compartment containing a loaded 9-mm handgun, along with $30,000 in cash and four grams of cocaine, said sources. He was arrested and charged with weapons and drug possession, police said.
Figueroa, of Waterbury, Connecticut has one prior conviction for a drug-related home invasion robbery in Queens in 2007, sources said.
