Police: Stop for Traffic Violation Nets 11 Bags of Heroin, Arrest

According to the Norwalk police report, if Vasilios Yerinides had just used his left turn signal when he drove across two lanes of traffic and took a left turn (and if he'd worn his seat belt), he wouldn't have been arrested on narcotics possession charges.

And he was charged with failure to use his signal lights and not wearing a seatbelt, as well.

Norwalk police gave this account (an accusation not proven in court) of the incident and arrest:

At about 10:30 a.m., police in the special services unit saw Yerinides driving on West Avenue, not wearing a seatbelt and crossing lanes of traffic without a left-turn signal. They followed him as he turned onto Maple Street and stopped his car there.

As police approached the vehicle, they saw him moving around in his seat and suspected he was trying to conceal something. Then they saw him put his seatbelt on.

He told police he didn't have his driver's license with him. A records check showed why: His license had been suspended in 2009 and he wasn't supposed to be driving. Police had him step out of the car, in which there were two other passengers and two pit bull dogs.

Police, who were aware of what they called Yerinides' extensive history of drug selling, found $2,850 in one of his pockets and 11 bags of heroin in the car. (Later tests confirmed that the substance in the bags was heroin.)

The car was registered to a relative, but police found items in it that indicated he used the car as his own. Police said that's a common scheme by drug sellers trying to avoid having their cars seized if they are arrested.

The two passengers were allowed to leave. The car was towed. Arrangements were made for the pit bulls' care.

Yerinides, of Mark Drive, was charged with failure to use signal lights, failure to wear a seatbelt, possession of narcotics, illegal possession of narcotics near a school (a day care center was near where the vehicle was stopped), possession of narcotics with intent to sell near a school, operating a motor vehicle with a suspended driver's license. Since he was on parole, he was remanded to the custody of his parole office and was held without bond. Yerinides is scheduled to appear Aug. 29 in state Superior Court in Norwalk.