An Anne Arundel County police officer who stopped a car for speeding near Baltimore-Washington International Airport Wednesday morning was led to $300,000 of nearly pure cocaine, authorities said yesterday.
Officer Samuel Sweet of the Northern District was led to a hotel by the driver he had stopped for speeding.
In a room at the hotel, the officer found the cocaine, police said.
Officer Sweet stopped a car for speeding at Elkridge Landing Road and West Nursery Road shortly before 11 a.m.
The driver had no license but gave Officer Sweet a false identification card, the officer said.
The patrolman's suspicions were aroused, however, when the man couldn't give his Social Security number and date of birth.
He was identified later through a fingerprint check.
When Officer Sweet started to search the 1988 Pontiac, he found that the trunk had a lock police say is the type used by drug dealers. The officer called for a drug-sniffing dog, which acted as if it had smelled drugs, even though there were none in the trunk.
The driver also had a pager, a portable telephone and directions to a room at the Holiday Inn Express Hotel in the 7400 block of Ridge Road, a few miles away.
Officer Sweet found a man in the room, agreed to let the officer search the room.
The patrolman found a substance in the man's luggage that tested positive for cocaine, police said.
"I took it to the lab and weighed it myself," Officer Sweet said. "It came to exactly 6.6 pounds."
Leroy Stanford Gittens, 28, who police say was the driver, was charged with possession of cocaine and was ordered held at the Anne Arundel County Detention Center on $100,000 bail.
Charles Harris, 24, of Decatur, Ga., who police say was in the hotel room, was arrested and charged with possession with intent to distribute cocaine and transporting drugs into Maryland.
Anne Arundel District Judge Essom Ricks set bail for Mr. Harris yesterday at $300,000.