INWOOD — A 31-year-old man driving back from a Detroit music festival was busted on Dyckman Street by officers who found a hidden cache of drugs and paraphernalia in his car, officials said.
Mario Brito, 31, was on his way back with six other passengers from the Movement Detroit Music Festival when agents from the federal Drug Enforcement Agency stopped his 2011 Toyota Sienna on Dyckman Street and Seaman Avenue on June 1, officials said.
Officers acting on specific information from a previous short-term investigation searched the car and found several bags of cocaine, ecstasy, marijuana, pills, needles, an electronic scale and other drug paraphernalia, according to Kati Cornell, of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor’s office.
Cornell said the drugs, which were all found inside a black bag with a “Rebel Effect” logo, were stashed inside a hidden compartment – or “trap” – in the car. The agents recovered a total of 50 duffel bags with a similar logo inside the car. The bag, Cornell said, is associated with a smoke shop in New York.
A spokesperson for "Rebel Effect" said the company gave out 500 of the black bags at the music festival as part of a promotion, which "might explain why [the] bags were found."
Brito, who officials said is from Queens, left for the music festival on Friday for the Memorial Day weekend. He was arraigned on Wednesday, June 1 and charged with several counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance and unlawful possession of marijuana.
He’s due back in court on Tuesday. His lawyer did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
The six other passengers were released and not charged, officials said.
The drug bust was similar to a heroin bust in April in which 10 people were arrested and approximately $5 million worth of heroin and drug paraphernalia were seized from an Inwood apartment.
