Mass State Police and different businesses have busted an alleged main fentanyl and cocaine trafficking enterprise, in what regulation enforcement is asking “Operation No Love.”
Sixteen suspected fentanyl and cocaine distributors have been arrested after police executed search warrants at 20 areas in Fall River, Taunton, Raynham, Norton, Pembroke, and Falmouth.
In the course of the searches, regulation enforcement seized about 2,360 grams of cocaine and 1,364 grams of fentanyl, 33 firearms, a number of high-capacity magazines, lots of of rounds of ammunition, and $109,355 in money.
“Operation No Love” started final March when members of the Massachusetts State Police Commonwealth Interstate Narcotics Discount Enforcement Staff launched a narcotics investigation right into a drug trafficking group in Bristol County.
An undercover trooper reportedly performed 9 drug purchases with a member of the drug trafficking group.
“With the controlled purchases as a starting point, the investigative team used a combination of physical and electronic surveillance, toll analysis, and court-authorized electronic intercepts of target cell phones, to identify the organization’s hierarchy, primary subjects, communication devices, vehicles, methods of operation, and sources of narcotics supply,” State Police wrote.
Investigators then obtained search warrants for 11 areas in Taunton, two areas in Raynham, 4 areas in Fall River, and one location every in Falmouth, Pembroke, and Norton.
On April 15, the investigative crew made up of almost 200 troopers and officers executed the warrants.
The 16 people who have been arrested and charged have been: Yosef Ali, 49, of Fall River; Jean Carlos Castillo Mendoza, 44, of Fall River; Jorge Santiago, 36, of Taunton; Jorge Arce, 46, of Taunton; Neftali Torres, 51, of Taunton; Christopher McLaughlin, 43, of Taunton; Shawn Roias, 35, of Taunton; Courtney Whitmore, 27, of Taunton; Val Bettencourt, 50, of Taunton; Brayton Crites, 26, of Taunton; Andrew Williams, 27, of Raynham; Sabrina Cohen, 27, of Taunton; Lucas Guimaraes, 29, of Norton; Brian Szakaly, 27, of Raynham; David Brasil, 45, of Falmouth; Mary Hunt, 59, of Falmouth.
The joint operation final month was led by the Massachusetts State Police Commonwealth Interstate Narcotics Discount Enforcement Staff, Homeland Safety Investigations, Raynham Police, and prosecuted by the Massachusetts Lawyer Common’s Workplace.
