Five in Norwalk Arrested on Heroin Charges

Police officers became suspicious late Sunday evening when they spotted two cars parked near each other in the parking lot of a restaurant that had closed, so they watched—and saw what looked like drug selling.

In the end, the incident resulted in arrests on drug charges for five people, all Norwalk residents in their twenties. Police said they also recovered multiple packets of heroin.

Police gave this account of the incident:

At about 11 p.m., police officers on patrol spotted the two cars next to each other in the parking lot of Cosmos Diner, which had closed, at 147 Connecticut Ave. They then watched as a man later identified as James Lombardo, 29, got out of one car and went over to the driver of the other vehicle, later identified as Catherine Throwbridge, 26.

Police then pulled into the parking lot and approached the cars. As soon as they did so, Lombardo took off running. When he got up to a fence at one end of the property, he threw a plastic container over a fence to the other property.

When police caught up with him and asked him what he threw, Lombardo, of 59 Cedar St., said it was heroin. After retrieving the container, which police described as a clear plastic bottle, they found three bundles of heroin (later confirmed by tests at police headquarters) and several pills. The pills couldn't be identified, but further tests are expected to be done on them, police said.

Five arrests

Lombardo was already on probation when he was arrested on charges of possessing drugs, selling drugs, selling them within 1,500 feet of a public housing project and not keeping prescribed narcotic drugs in their original container. Lombardo's bail was initially set at $100,000.

The driver of Lombardo's car was Casey Matula, 24, of 21 Prospect St., who was also charged with various counts of drug selling or possession, together with a charge that she conspired to commit those crimes. Like Lombardo, Matula was also on probation at the time of her arrest. Her initial bail was set at $25,000.

When police approached the driver of the other car, Throwbridge, they found she was concealing several celophane packets of a "cream colored substance" that appeared to be heroin. Throwbridge, of 35 Summit Ave., was charged with possession of narcotics, conspiracy to possess narcotics and possession within 1,500 feet of a public housing project. Bail for Throwbridge was initially set at $10,000.

There were two passengers in the car with Throwbridge, each of whom was charged with possession of narcotics and conspiracy to possess it: Jeffrey Diforio, 29, of 42 Rampart Rd. and Robert Lenkowski, 24, of 42 Devils Garden Road. In addition, Lenkowski was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia and drug possession within 1,500 feet of a school. Bail for Diforio and Lenkowski was set at $2,000 for each.