Police: Heroin found in car during traffic stop

Four East Meadow residents were nabbed for possessing heroin and a hypodermic needle after troopers stopped the driver for speeding on the Southern State Parkway, according to the state police.
   
At about 2:05 a.m. on April 20, two troopers observed a black Toyota driving at a high rate of speed on the eastbound side of the parkway near exit 19, Peninsula Blvd in South Hempstead. Police said the driver, David Lanci, 33, of East Meadow, did not have identification and was operating the vehicle with a suspended license. Following an inventory search of the car, police said the troopers found a small plastic box containing a hypodermic needle and a small amount of heroin weighing less than a gram under the front passenger seat.
  
Lanci, and the three passengers — Joseph Gribbin, 29, Anna Devany, 22 and Joseph Smith, 26, all of East Meadow — were placed under arrest, police said. They all were charged with Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance 7th Degree and Possession of a Hypodermic Needle, authorities said, while Lanci also faces vehicle and traffic

People named in Crime Watch items as having been arrested and charged with violations or crimes are only suspected of committing those acts of which they are accused. They are all presumed to be innocent of those charges until and unless found guilty in a court of law.