Two men were on opposite sides of the city when they were nabbed minutes apart Sunday morning, but the circumstances behind their arrests were weirdly similar.
Mark James Linnell Jr., 43, and Adrian Garcia- Togaba, 30, both had illegal guns and a bevy of narcotic drugs in their cars when Maricopa Police Department officers arrested them; one at 8:04 a.m., the other at 8:30.
The police that morning first found Linnell slumped over the steering wheel of his Dodge Durango near Alterra Parkway and Gatun Avenue. Officers boxed in his SUV with their cruisers before they woke him up.
Linnell denied being armed before handing officers his driver’s license, which revealed he had two active warrants out of Cochise and Maricopa Counties on dangerous and narcotic drugs charges.
During a pat down, officers found Linnell was utilizing his cargo shorts to their full potential — they found Ziplock baggies, straws commonly used to smoke fentanyl, burnt pieces of foil, 17 fentanyl pills, a meth pipe, a gram of meth and a stolen pistol.
Police also reported finding two other people’s drivers licenses, a fingerprint card and a social security card stolen out of Phoenix and Avondale in Linnell’s pockets.
The officers charged Linnell with possession charges of dangerous drugs, narcotics, narcotics for sale, drug paraphernalia and a stolen firearm while on probation. He was also slapped with two charges of knowingly carrying a stolen weapon and one charge of failing to admit carrying a deadly weapon.
If convicted on all counts, he faces 74 years in prison.
It was 26 minutes later when another officer saw Garcia-Togaba walk from the Maricopa QuikTrip to his Chrystler 300 that was parked at the pumps.
Garcia-Togaba “appeared uncomfortable with my presence as he looked at me and quickly looked away,” an officer noted in his probable cause statement, adding that the man appeared to shuffle items around the inside of his car before driving away.
The registration on Garcia-Togaba’s sedan was suspended, so the officer tailed him and initiated a traffic stop near Fry’s Marketplace.
Police noted that Garcia-Togaba was “visibly nervous” as he was shaking and looking straight ahead while talking to the authorities. He told the police that he did not have a driver’s license and denied having any weapons in the car.
Garcia-Togaba was placed under arrest for driving without a license. Police suggested they found a suspicious amount of cash during a search of his person.
Inside a backpack on the passenger seat floorboard was 37 grams of cocaine, 48 grams of meth in the form of 115 pills, 23 grams of marijuana, a gold scale with a rolled dollar bill and multiple blue baggies. In another backpack on the floorboard was a black Taurus handgun.
Garcia-Togaba was booked into the Pinal County jail on possession charges of dangerous drugs for sale, narcotics for sale, marijuana for sale, and charges of misconduct involving weapons and failure to provide a driver’s license. If convicted, he faces more than 48 years in prison.
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