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A North Carolina man was charged in Freeborn County District Court on Monday with second-degree drug possession after he was reportedly found with cocaine and a small amount of marijuana during a traffic stop on Interstate 35.

Corey Dwayne Pate, 39, of High Point, North Carolina, was initially pulled over by a Minnesota State Patrol who had been on routine patrol and was parked under the Interstate 90 overpass observing northbound traffic on Interstate 35, according to the court complaint. The trooper reportedly observed a white car traveling at a high rate of speed with a dark window tint.

Court records state the trooper began following the vehicle, which was going 77 mph in a 70-mph zone, and when the trooper activated his emergency lights, the vehicle did not immediately stop, but after a short distance, it pulled over on the right shoulder near mile marker 18.

Pate, who was the registered owner of the vehicle, reportedly had a freshly lit cigarette and had started making a phone call as the trooper approached the vehicle. There were also open containers of alcohol in the back seat with a few food items. Court documents stated based on the trooper’s experience, it is common for people to light a cigarette to mask odors in a vehicle and to make a phone call to distract officers while on a stop.

The trooper reportedly smelled a faint odor of alcohol and marijuana coming from inside the vehicle.

A K-9 searched around the vehicle and alerted to an odor in the vehicle, specifically the floor in the front passenger seat, where a black bag was located.

Inside the bag, the trooper found a Tupperware container with a small amount of marijuana, as well as two medium-sized bags with smaller baggies inside that contained a white powder substance that field-tested positive for cocaine. There were 15 baggies with 1 to 2 grams of the substance inside each.

A Taurus G2C 9mm handgun with a live round in the chamber was also found on the floor mat below the steering wheel on the driver’s side of the car.

In court on Monday, District Court Judge Christy Hormann set Pate’s unconditional bail at $50,000 and conditional bail at $5,000. He is next slated to appear in court Jan. 4.