People v. Dominguez

—Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Richard Lee Price, J.), rendered January 6, 1992, convicting defendant, following a jury trial, of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the fourth degree and sentencing him to an indeterminate term of imprisonment of 2 to 6 years, unanimously affirmed.

The motion to suppress physical evidence was properly denied. The police officers’ observation of defendant passing a silver tin foil packet, a suspicious act and a tell-tale sign of illicit drug activity, gave the officers a right to inquire based upon a founded suspicion that defendant might be engaged in criminal activity (People v Jones, 196 AD2d 788 , lv denied 82 NY2d 897 ; People v Leung, 68 NY2d 734 , 736). The abandonment of the packet and the flight of defendant and his companion, upon the officers’ approach, rapidly escalated the encounter, justifying the pursuit and the arrest (People v Leung, supra); the search pursuant to arrest resulted in recovery of the drugs for which defendant was convicted. Concur— Rosenberger, J. P., Asch, Rubin, Williams and Tom, JJ.