Cops: Garbage truck driver found with drugs

A garbage truck driver under contract with Islip Town was charged with driving while ability impaired Monday after he failed a roadside safety checkpoint in Brentwood, Suffolk police said.

Michael P. Maglione, 32, of Mastic Beach, was found with OxyContin and Tylenol with codeine, but did not have prescriptions for them, police said. He also had marijuana, police said.

He was arrested at a commercial vehicle inspection point set up Monday by highway patrol and state transportation inspectors at the Park and Ride lot on Wicks Road, just south of the Long Island Expressway.

As part of the checks, officers interviewed truck drivers, including Maglione, who works for Armar Carting Corp. in Medford, police said. The carter picks up trash for Islip Town, police said.

"The officer noticed his eyes were bloodshot and constricted," said Sgt. Michael Mallin of the Highway Patrol Motor Carrier Safety Section. "His speech was slurred, and he was unsteady on his feet."

His truck was taken out of service due to several safety violations, from nonworking lights to an oil leak. "Half of his brakes were defective," Mallin said.

Maglione, of 108 Pineway Ave., is expected to be arraigned in First District Court in Central Islip Tuesday on one count of driving while ability impaired by drugs, two counts of seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and one of unlawful possession of marijuana.

A man who answered the phone at Armar Carting said he was the owner and said he did not know about the arrest and problems with truck. He declined to give his name and said he would have to look into the incident before commenting.