A 24-year-old man was arrested Thursday night in connection with marijuana possession.

The man was in the backseat of a car stopped by police on Oct. 15 at about 8:30 p.m. for a traffic violation near the intersection of Asbury Avenue and Howard Street, said Evanston police Cmdr. Joseph Dugan. Police said they smelled marijuana from the car and saw crumbs, seeds and stems on the man’s lap. Two other men were with him during this incident.

Police said they found 14.4 grams of marijuana in the man’s pants’ pocket and what they suspected to be a Xanax tablet when they were searching him. The K9 officers found cigar wrappers under the front floorboard on the passenger’s side, several blue Ziploc baggies — one of which had a white pill police said they suspected to be Xanax — a scale and an automatic cigarette roller. Police also found the man in the passenger’s seat possessed an additional 4.4 grams of marijuana.

Due to a related previous conviction, the man in the backseat was charged with a felony for possession of marijuana and a misdemeanor for unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia.

The driver was given a citation for failure to use a turn signal, and the front seat passenger was given a ticket for unlawful possession of marijuana. But both were released.

Four instances of gang-related graffiti spotted in Evanston

Four incidents of gang-related graffiti have been reported in Evanston over the span of about a week.

Police said between Oct. 11 and Oct. 18, four separate areas — one in the 100 block of Hartrey Avenue, one in the 2100 block of Madison Place and two residences in the 900 block of Brown Avenue — have been tagged with a gold or yellow crown and a downward-pointing pitchfork. Two areas reportedly also have the letters “GDK.”

Police said they believe the crown to be the symbol of the Latin Kings gang, the pitchfork to represent the Gangster Disciples gang and “GDK” to stand for Gangster Disciples Killer. However, they are not sure who is behind the tags.

“Any time we get something like that, we keep an eye out,” Dugan said. “Someone’s advertising that they’re out there.”

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