Opinion
March 8, 1994
Appeal from the Supreme Court, New York County (Jerome Hornblass, J.).
The hearing court properly denied defendant's suppression motion. The observation by the arresting officer (trained and experienced in street narcotics operations including the use of a "stash") of defendant and his cohort, in a drug-prone location, deliberately placing a paper cup against the metal gate of a closed store premises, and then placing that cup in a brown paper bag and standing watch nearby, provided a founded suspicion that defendant and his cohort were guarding a narcotics "stash". This founded suspicion that criminality was afoot provided a reasonable basis for the officer's investigative inquiry as to what was in the bag (see, People v. Hollman, 79 N.Y.2d 181, 185). Defendant's advice that the bag contained narcotics provided probable cause for his arrest (People v. De Bour, 40 N.Y.2d 210, 223).
Concur — Sullivan, J.P., Ross, Asch, Rubin and Tom, JJ.