3 Held on Drug Charges After CHP Traffic Stop

A routine traffic stop on the Golden State Freeway near Gorman resulted in three arrests after about $40,000 worth of cocaine was found hidden in the body of a car, the California Highway Patrol said Friday.

Jimmy Lawrence Carter, a 32-year-old Compton man who was free on bail in a murder case, was arrested on suspicion of transportation of a controlled substance, the CHP said. Two other men, Harry Truman Sims, 18, and Sylvester Corbin, 35, both of Los Angeles, were arrested on the same charges.

The three men were arrested after the northbound car they were in was pulled over for speeding Thursday afternoon, the CHP said. Officer Steve Munday said that as he approached the 1970 Nova he smelled marijuana and saw cans of beer in the car. He said the men in the car allowed him to search it. Munday found a bag containing cocaine in a hiding place inside the body of the car. He declined to say exactly where.

The car was towed to the CHP station in Newhall where a more thorough search was conducted. A total of 400 grams of powder and rock cocaine packaged in small plastic bags was found.

Sims and Corbin were jailed at the sheriff’s station in Santa Clarita in lieu of $50,000 bail each. Carter was being held at the jail, but his bail was set at $1 million because he was already free on $50,000 bail in the Compton murder case, Munday said.