ATTORNEY CHALLENGES CAR SEARCH

The lawyer for a man charged with transporting a large quantity of
heroin through Connecticut said Tuesday he believes East Haven police
searched his client's car illegally.

The lawyer, John Cicillini, said he will ask a judge to suppress
evidence allegedly found in Quillvio Nunez' car March 12.

The evidence is a pound of pure heroin worth at least
$200,000.

If the judge grants the motion, it would effectively end the case,
said Cicillini, of Providence, R.I.

Nunez, 37, of Warwick, R.I., was arrested after police said East Haven
Officer Lance Coughlin spotted him on Frontage Road driving a car that
the officer thought may have been used in a Branford robbery the day
before.

Police said Coughlin confronted Nunez, who was driving from New York
to Rhode Island, in a parking lot after Nunez came out of a store.

After questioning Nunez, police said Coughlin opened a console in the
center of the car and found the drug.

Cicillini said he does not believe Coughlin had 'probable cause'' to
search the car. A police officer has probable cause to search a car
when there is sufficient reason to believe the car may contain
evidence of a crime.

'He (the officer) tries to point things out in his report that in his
mind make out probable cause, such as the defendant's prior drug
record,'' Cicillini said.

Asked about Cicillini's position, East Haven Police Chief Leonard L.
Gallo, noted authorities are still looking into the alleged
trafficking.

'It's an open criminal nvestigation and in the hands of the court,''
he said.

Nunez, who is being held in lieu of $500,000 bail at the Walker
Reception and Special Management Unit in Suffield, is due to appear in
Superior Court in New Haven on April 14 for a pretrial conference.

Nunez has pleaded innocent.

Cicillini said his client did not know the drug was in the
car.

Nunez bought the car at an auction two weeks earlier, he
said.

'Would you check underneath the console?'' he said. 'I wouldn't.'' At
the time of the arrest, police said the bust was one of the largest
seizures of heroin in recent memory in Connecticut.

They placed the street value of the drug at about $200,000. Court
records say the quantity could have been worth as much as $600,000 on
the street.

The arrest also spawned a state and federal investigation into alleged
New York to Rhode Island heroin trafficking.

Police attributed a heroin arrest made in the Foxon section last week
to information developed from the investigation that began with Nunez'
arrest. In that case, they allegedly seized $5,400 from the car of a
New Haven man.