LAKE HAVASU CITY — A 7.5-year prison term has been ordered in a Lake Havasu City cocaine case. The punishment imposed by Mohave County Superior Court Judge Derek Carlisle on October 2 was stipulated in a plea agreement entered on behalf of Gary Brooks, 27.
Brooks pleaded guilty to possession of narcotics for sale.
A Lake Havasu City police report said Brooks was pulled over in the vicinity of Highway 95 and Centre Boulevard on May 1 for failing to maintain his travel lane and an expired license plate. Search activity followed a vehicle alert by drug sniffing K9 Echo.
Brooks was placed in the rear of a police patrol vehicle after a search of his vehicle resulted in seizure of about a gram of cocaine, six pills and assorted items of drug paraphernalia. Detective Robert Draper discovered a cocaine mess as he removed Brooks from the vehicle to search him.
“A plastic baggy fell out onto the street from the prisoner compartment and then I immediately noticed a large amount of white powdery substance, which I recognized to be cocaine, all over the back seat, Gary’s hands and backside, and the floor,” Draper said in the police narrative. It said K9 Echo apparently didn’t ingest any of the drugs.
Investigators reportedly collected about eight ounces of cocaine, but believe another ounce was lost in the sloppy concealment effort.
