Cops: Security guard stashed drugs, cash at workplace

A security guard at a residential development in Woodbury, already in the process of being terminated, was arrested on a heroin-possession charge when he returned to the site Thursday to pick up cash he had left behind, Nassau County police said.

Police said Manuel L. Melendez, 28, of 48 State Ave., Woodbury, was arrested at 7:30 p.m. by Second Precinct officers at the FJC Security booth at Eagle Chase, off the Sunnyside Boulevard Extension.

Charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance, Melendez was ordered held on bail of $100,000 bond or $50,000 cash at his arraignment Friday in First District Court in Hempstead.

According to the arrest report, police said that Melendez, in the process of being terminated, called the head of security at the site and said: "I have some money I keep in the booth. I have to come back and get it." The boss asked Melendez where the money was, so he could set it aside, and police said Melendez told him.

The security director, whose name was not released, then proceeded to find $3,000 in cash and "several small bags of heroin," police said. He immediately notified police.

Police said Melendez was arrested when he went to the site to collect his possessions.

Melendez is due back in court Monday.

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