If you’re in the drug-trafficking business, usually there comes a time when you decide it’s not enough to call what you’re selling by its common name. In this case, heroin. The usual suspects (“Big H”, “smack”, etc.) aren’t working for you either. So why not come up with a unique reference that will make your illegal product stand out from the rest while at the same time showing just how “witty” you are?
Of course, there’s no way of knowing that this is what 23-year-old Tyler Robenstein of Colchester, VT had in mind. What is known is that the cops who pulled him over on Friday morning were thrown for a bit of a loop.
State Police Trooper Joseph Petty was in the midst of a traffic stop in the area of Route 91 in Northampton, MA when he says the suspect’s vehicle flew past him. Petty noted several violations (some drug traffickers aren’t that subtle when transferring illegal products), which resulted in a pursuit of the car.
Petty ended up stopping Robenstein in Hatfield, MA. It was during the course of conversing with the driver and passengers that Petty found evidence of narcotics. After requesting a State Police K-9, law enforcement discovered roughly 1,250 bags of individual packets of heroin in the vehicle.
Many of those packets had “Obamacare” stamped on them in big red letters. Obamacare is a common nickname for the Affordable Care Act. State Police Lieutenant Daniel Richard says it’s common for drugs to be stamped with words and numbers, usually to identify the product or seller. He does admit this is the first he’s heard of anyone using the term Obamacare for such purposes.
Tyler Robenstein and his passengers 22-year-old Marquese Jones and 24-year-old Sherod Green, both of Newark NJ, are being held until their appearance in Northampton District Court. In addition to answering to charges ranging from speeding to possession with intent to distribute, maybe they will bother to explain why they named their drugs after the president’s health care bill.
Image via the Massachusetts State Police Facebook
