Two men pulled over for traffic violations on Interstate 85 last week may face federal weapons trafficking charges, according to the Commerce Police Department.
An officer on patrol on I-85 noticed a vehicle driving 65 miles per hour in the left lane and holding up traffic, and when the officer pulled in behind the vehicle, the driver abruptly swerved into the right lane without signaling, nearly causing an accident. That led the officer to pull the vehicle over.
The driver was Paul L. Boykin, 26, of 2123 Hasel Street, Lawrenceville, and the passenger was Antonio La Quinn Brown, 26, of 5860 Berwyn Street, Orange, NJ.
The first problem the officer encountered was that Boykin did not have a driver’s license, which he admitted had been suspended, but said should have been reinstated. The second problem was that the passenger presented himself as “Rajee Ramellow Brown,” but “had a hard time spelling his name,” the officer wrote.
The officer asked the driver for the passenger’s name, and Boykin allegedly told the officer that although they were friends in high school, he only knew the man as “Tone,” but thought his first name was Antonio — which eventually proved to be the case.
The officer asked the men if any guns, drugs or illegal weapons were in the vehicle. They replied in the negative and gave the officers permission to search the vehicle, the arrest report said.
In the trunk, according to the incident report, officers found nine handguns, each in their own cases.
As a result, both men were charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Later, when an agent of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives became involved, he took the weapons and indicated that Boykin and Brown will be charged with trafficking firearms.
