Traffic stop leads to drug, gun arrest

Officers in Westbury wound up finding more than 40 bags of crack cocaine and two loaded handguns after stopping a driver who made an illegal maneuver in his Hummer, Nassau police said Saturday.

The driver, Ydu Lazarre, had been southbound Friday in a left-turn lane on Post Avenue at Old Country Road, but illegally went straight -- catching the attention of police from the Williston Park-based Third Precinct, police said in a news release.

Police pulled over the Hummer and saw Lazarre reaching under the driver's seat, the release said. Officers forced him out of the Hummer, a 2006 model, in which they found the bags, the handguns, and an ammunition belt holding "numerous .38-caliber rounds," police said.

Charges against Lazarre, 30, of 60 Third Ave., New Cassel, include criminal possession of a weapon, criminal use of a firearm and criminal possession of a controlled substance. He also got a traffic ticket for failure to obey a traffic control device. On the gun charges, Lazarre is facing increased penalties because he is a felon, a police spokesman said, but the spokesman didn't immediately know Lazarre's criminal history.

At an arraignment Saturday before Judge Erica L. Prager of First District Court, Lazarre was ordered jailed on $10,000 bond or $5,000 cash bail, according to court records. As of Saturday evening, it wasn't immediately clear whether bail had been posted. He's due back in court Wednesday.