DEA nabs 12 in Mass., RI; seizes heroin, guns
Twelve people were arrested in Massachusetts and Rhode Island Monday night in a multi-city sting targeting alleged drug traffickers, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Agents executed search warrants in Lawrence, Lynn, Fall River, New Bedford and Providence, R.I., yielding more than a kilogram of heroin with a street value of at least $100,000, the DEA said.
Agents also seized $100,000 cash, three money counters, digital scales, two guns and high-powered, extra-capacity magazines, Special Agent in Charge Brian Boyle said.
“These crimes rob the neighborhoods of safety and hold law-abiding citizens of New England hostage to drug-fueled lawlessness,” Boyle said. “This is unacceptable and will not be allowed to happen.”
The 12 were scheduled to be arraigned in federal court in Boston Tuesday and, if convicted, face up to 10 years in prison, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Nate Mandell said.
The suspects did car-to-car transactions, Mandell said. And using court-authorized wiretaps, agents were able to record phone calls in which they used coded language, both typical of traffickers, he said.
“What was not business as usual,” Mandell said, “was the pandemic…The pandemic is here but has had no effect” on drug trafficking.
The sting was part of Project Safeguard, an initiative that prioritizes investigations into the most wanted fugitives and drug traffickers who commit violent crimes, said DEA Acting Administrator Timothy J. Shea.
“Drug trafficking and violent crime are inextricably linked,” Shea said. “From the extreme levels of violence in Mexican cartels, to the open air drug markets in American cities, drug traffickers employ violence, fear and intimidation to ply their trade. Neighborhoods across our country are terrorized by violent drug trafficking organizations that have little regard for human life and profit from the pain and suffering of our people.”
These criminals employ fear, violence and intimidation to traffic drugs and, in doing so, exacerbate a drug crisis that claims more than 70,000 American lives every year, he said; DEA will treat these crimes as homicides, when appropriate.
Since it began in August, Project Safeguard has resulted in 128 cases, 254 arrests – including two DEA fugitives – 299 firearms, $6.9 million in seized assets, 16.9 kilograms of fentanyl and 11.5 kilograms of heroin in the New England.