City man faces drug trafficking, weapons charges
Vice Squad bust leads to five felony counts
WOONSOCKET — A city man was ordered held at the state prison Tuesday following his arrest on drug trafficking and weapons charges in a monthlong investigation by members of the Woonsocket Police Department’s undercover narcotics squad.
Marco A. Rondon, 43, of 458 Wood Ave., was taken into custody a day earlier, when Vice Squad officers searched his third-floor apartment, seizing 11.9 grams of heroin, 38.7 grams of powder cocaine, 25.1 grams of crack cocaine and a Ruger 9mm semiautomatic handgun. They also seized a total of $2,152 in cash and an assortment of drug paraphernalia, including glassine sandwich bags, a digital scale and Vitamin B8 powder, which is often used to dilute powder cocaine.
Following his arraignment in Sixth District Court, Rondon is currently held without bail at the Adult Correctional Institutions, Cranston, on five felony counts — possession of a firearm during the commission of a drug-trafficking crime; distribution of a controlled substance within 300 yards of a school zone; possession of heroin with the intent to deliver; possession of cocaine with the intent to deliver; and possession of crack cocaine with the intent to deliver.
He is due back in Sixth District Court for a bail hearing on Oct. 10, according to the judiciary’s website.
Police reports say members of the Vice Unit obtained a warrant to search Rondon’s apartment and a silver Ford Expedition he drives after Rondon allegedly twice sold heroin to Vice Squad agents within the last month.
Rondon was driving the Expedition on Mendon Road about 10 a.m. Monday, shortly after he left his apartment.
According to reports filed by undercover detectives, Rondon wanted to know why he’d been pulled over, at which point police told him he’d sold drugs to an informant. Rondon appeared cooperative when asked if police would find drugs in his apartment.
Rondon even supplied investigators with a key to his apartment so they could let themselves to search it without kicking in the door, according to the vice squad’s report.
Most of the evidence was found in a shoebox in Rondon’s bedroom, police said. The gun and two fullyloaded ammunition clips were on top of the bedroom dresser.