Man Arrested on Cocaine Charge in Police Sting

A Bloomfield man was arrested on cocaine charges Friday afternoon in a local shopping plaza parking lot after Avon police said he was caught following an undercover police investigation.

"It was an investigation where he was talking to our detectives in an undercover capacity," Lt. Kelly Walsh, public information officer for the , said Friday.

Police stopped him in the 51 East parking lot by at 12:21 p.m.

According to police, 35-year-old Vernon Jackson, of 46 Linwood Dr., had 0.3 grams of cocaine with him. Police charged Jackson with conspiracy to sell an illegal drug, as well as illegal manufacturing, distribution or sale by a non-drug dependent.

Jackson was there with a woman, Stacy Ayala, 26, whom police charged with failure to keep a drug in its original container. Both Ayala, of 20 Westland St., Hartford, and Jackson were also cited with possession of less than a half-ounce of marijuana, an infraction.

Both were released on $1,000 bonds and are scheduled to appear in Hartford Superior Court on May 2.

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