A routine traffic stop led to a Woodland man’s arrest on multiple drug-related charges Wednesday night, according to the California Highway Patrol.
It was expired registration tabs and the driver’s lack of a seat belt that first caught the officer’s attention at about 10:20 p.m. on southbound Interstate 5 near the East Street exit in Woodland, Officer Bryan Konvalin said. As the patrol car pulled in behind the Lincoln Town Car, the driver quickly exited but was pulled over in a nearby parking lot.
As the officer approached the car, he smelled marijuana coming from the vehicle, Konvalin said. The driver, later identified as 28-year-old Jimmy Lee Groves, allegedly tried to flee as the officer prepared to frisk him for weapons. Groves reportedly refused to obey commands from the officer, who eventually retrained him with the help of two passersby.
Backup officers who arrived on scene determined Groves had been in possession of several thousand dollars, credit and bank cards in another person’s name, marijuana and other controlled substances, as well as drug paraphernalia, Konvalin said. He was lodged at the Yolo County Jail.