DA moves to seize BMW it says man used as a drug store on wheels at Mass and Cass

The Suffolk County District Attorney's office yesterday moved to seize the 2017 BMW 750I it alleges a man sold crack out of at Mass and Cass and at the South Bay mall.

In a filing in Suffolk Superior Court, the DA's office asked a judge to let it hold the car - and the $2,839 police found inside it - as Jason Lattimore's case on charges that include trafficking in a Class B substance and illegal possession of a large-capacity firearm - proceeds, under a state law that allows for the forfeiture of items used in illegal drug sales. Should he be found guilty, the DA's office would then move to sell off the car and split the proceeds of that and the cash with Boston Police.

According to the DA's seizure request, the BPD citywide drug unit already had its eye on Lattimore, 40, when its detectives and officers staked out Mass and Cass on Aug. 1.

Officers observed Latimore return to the Vehicle several times throughout this investigation and enter the passenger side of the Vehicle, appearing to retrieve something from the floorboard and then return to the area where he meets his potential buyers.

The request continued that the officers watched Latimore selling drugs out of a backpack he'd retrieved from the trunk for about a half hour on Atkinson Street. After he was done there, he and a companion then drove down Bradston Street, turn onto Massachusetts Avenue, and then stop, as a man ran towards the car - allegedly to buy some drugs.

Latimore next drove through the South Bay mall parking lot, where he allegedly pulled into a space near the Stop & Shop for what appeared to be another drug sale, the DA's seizure request says, adding that at that point, the drug detectives had seen enough, the DA's office writes, and they had officers in a marked cruiser stop the BMW at Southampton and Bradston streets, where they arrested Latimore.

Inside the backpack, the complaint continues, officers found both cocaine powder and crack, in a series of plastick bags and a Glock-style firearm loaded with 15 rounds of ammunition. Also seized: 43 gold one-dollar coins.

Innocent, etc.