NEW CASTLE - Emil Ferzola may have made it home to Mahopac last night with a cache of illegal drugs were it not for the deer that jumped in front of his car on the Taconic State Parkway, state police said.

Troopers responded to the northbound parkway around 9:30 p.m. after Ferzola's car struck a deer.

They said Ferzola, 25, appeared to be impaired by drug use, then gave them a bogus name, Investigator Joseph Becerra said.

They determined Ferzola's real name then learned of a warrant for his arrest in Carmel for unlicensed driving, Becerra said.

The troopers then searched his car, finding 56 packets of heroin and two different prescription medications but no prescriptions, police said.

They charged Ferzola with two felonies, third- and fourth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, and four misdemeanors, two counts of seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and one each of false personation, driving while impaired by drugs and third-degree aggravated unlicensed operation, police said.

He was sent to the Westchester County jail on $5,000 bail and is due in New Castle Town Court on Thursday.