A suspicious bulge in a drug dealer’s pants wasn’t grounds for dismissing the charges against him, the state Superior Court decided

Edward Roman Garza, 30, was stopped for a traffic violation in East Lampeter Township in 2013. He was, according to the court record, a passenger in a car driving more than 20 mph over the speed limit and swerving on Route 30 near Route 896.

Garza, the driver and another passenger were asked to step out of the vehicle after they provided state police with false information about their identities and recent whereabouts. Because the three men all had prior criminal records, police called for a K-9 unit and proceeded to check the men for weapons, the court summary says.

When Garza was being searched, the court reported, a trooper “observed a rectangular bulge in his pants near his groin that appeared to be the slide of a gun.”

The officer “grabbed the bulge and immediately knew it was not a firearm but a package of many individual baggies, which contained drugs. He believed it was heroin,” the report says.

When the officer confronted Garza about the drugs, the report says, Garza “denied it and responded that the trooper was touching a particular part of his body.”

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Then a black plastic bag fell from Garza’s pants, the report says, which proved to contain heroin and cocaine.

Garza was subsequently convicted and sentenced to three to 10 years in prison. On appeal, he argued the pat-down was illegal because, according to the Lancaster County district attorney’s office, “he told the trooper the bulge was ‘part of his anatomy,’ and the trooper had no reason to pat him down.”

The Superior Court disagreed, finding the trooper had “reasonable suspicion to justify a pat-down search.”

Justifications for the search included the possibility the bulge was a gun, the criminal histories of Garza and the others in the car, and the fact Garza had lied to police about his name and destination.

Police recovered 75 bundles of heroin and 2 ounces of cocaine, the district attorney’s office said.