De Soto Police arrested a 41-year-old Festus man for possession of a controlled substance and traffic violations on Aug. 14, after he was pulled over for traffic violations. Just after 9 p.m., a police officer was patrolling at Rock Road near Lueking Drive and saw a 1996 Ford Taurus driving over the white line on the right side of the road, according to a report from Police Chief Rick Draper.
The officer ran the license plates and found they were for a 2001 Chevrolet, not the Taurus. Also, the officer noticed that the driver kept leaning down in the front seat and decided to pull over the man. The driver made a left onto South Second Street and pulled over at Second and Kelly, the report said.
The driver “appeared to be nervous,” with “heavy sweat coming from his face,” the officer reported. “His eyes were very glossy and bloodshot.”
According to the report, the officer had the driver “step out of the vehicle and asked if he had anything illegal on his person. The driver said, ‘No,’” the officer said.
A woman who was a passenger in the car, however, told the officer that the driver shoved something under the front seat “and she wanted no part in it,” the report said.
The officer found “a white powdery substance, several unused syringes and numerous unidentified pills in the car,” according to the report. The substances will be forwarded to the Missouri State Highway Patrol Lab for analysis.
The man was booked and released pending application for warrants. Depending on results from the drug analysis, De Soto Police will seek charges against the man for felony drug possession, as well as for driving without a driver’s license and with unauthorized license plates and failure to maintain traffic lanes, Draper said.