Legal Question in Criminal Law in New Jersey

About one year ago, at approximately 2:00am, I was my dropping off my friend and his girlfriend at his house. As soon as I pulled away, I had noticed a police cruiser parked down the street. I continued driving and pulled onto the main road from the residential area that he lives in. I drove one block and noticed that same police cruiser waiting to pull onto the same street that I was now on, from the same residential area, but a different exit. He pulled behind me and instantly pulled me over. Two officers had approached my car, (one on each side), and the officer on my side of the car asked for my license, registration, and proof of insurance. I gave him all of the documents he had asked for, then, he says that it smells like burnt marijuana. At this point I am still unsure of the reason for the stop. He then said, "you were smoking pot in here, and you were chilling with that boy that lives on 123 Main Street, we know about him, he sells drugs." I said that, that was not the case. He then asked if he could search my car, I said no. He asked me to step out of the car, so I did. We were standing in front of my car and he was basically telling me that if I don't let them search on site, that they were going to impound my car and search it. While we are standing outside, he tells me that I was stopped for "no front plate" (required in NJ). I did not want to have my car towed and have never been in this position. They finally pressured me into letting them search and had me sign a form. They searched my car and found one plastic jar and one glass jar, which they claimed had drug residue on it. The officer goes, "sorry man, I have to do it, there's recording devices on the cars." I was arrested and charged with possession of drug paraphernalia. I contacted my lawyer the very next day, and he began working on the case. When he requested discovery, "they lost the video footage" and also never tested the "residue" they claimed to have been on the containers. I feel like I have been heavily targeted by the police, and my friend had told me that the police cruiser peeled out and floored it off of his street, but didn't know that I was stopped until I told him. Some other important details are my age: 19 years old and the car I was stopped in: 2014 BMW. What I think is that I was stopped because they suspected me to have drugs on me since I had left a "drug dealer's house" and saw that I had no front plate and had to lie and use that as their excuse to "legally" stop me. I feel like the dash cam would show that the officer never got a good look at the front-end of my car until I was already pulled over and that the recordings would show how they took advantage of a kid who didn't know his rights. I am eligible for the conditional discharge program or a trial. If I choose to go to trial, I wave my eligibility for the conditional discharge and risk having a criminal record. Do I have a case to suppress the charge because they are failing to provide an essential piece of evidence and discovery that could prove that they never saw the front of my car until I was already pulled over? Also, the statute states that the state has to prove the "intent" to use the paraphernalia even if drugs are not present. If I was driving home from my friends house with the two containers in my TRUNK (out of my reach, obviously) that I had completely forgot about, is that really intending to use it for drug purposes? Plus why would an officer be waiting on his street and then floor it to pull someone over for no front plate? They never tested the "residue" which I think is also essential. I feel like the police conveniently losing the footage is bogus. Please advise me on what I should do in this situation and what the most probable outcome will be. Thank you for reading, and thanks in advance for your advice.

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