Five face charges after drugs found in restaurant raid

Authorities raiding a small Spanish restaurant in Charlestown found crack, heroin and a half-kilogram of fentanyl behind the counter — and five workers who were inside the eatery at the time of the bust are facing drug trafficking charges, officials say.

Boston cops, state troopers and members of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force executing a search warrant at D’Raffa Restaurant on Bunker Hill Street Monday afternoon found seven small bags of cocaine, 10 bags of heroin and 22 bags of crack hidden in a shelving unit under the cash register — and 520 grams of fentanyl stashed behind a freezer in the basement, Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

Rosselys Esthefanie Pimental-Melo, 23; Matea Sanchez, 60; and Juan Guerrero-Tejeda, 28, all of Charlestown, were arraigned yesterday on drug trafficking charges and ordered held on a combined $200,000 bail, Conley said. Raphael Pimental, 46, and Ada Mejia-Mejia, 40, of Charlestown, are slated to be arraigned today in Charlestown Municipal Court.

Four of the people arrested were behind the counter at the time of the raid and one was in the basement, Conley said.

“When overdoses claim three times more lives than gun violence and car crashes combined, we can’t pretend that drug trafficking is a victimless crime,” Conley said in a statement. “It goes hand-in-hand with violence, death and despair. This investigation and seizure saved lives.”

The Inspectional Services Department ordered the restaurant closed on Monday, citing an imminent health hazard.