Police arrest man accused of selling drugs at library
WOONSOCKET – Immigrations and Customs Enforcement is investigating after a man calling himself Morino Gonzalez was arraigned in District Court Thursday on charges of selling cocaine and threatening to kill a police officer inside Harris Public Library a day earlier.
Gonzalez, 32, of Lynn, Mass., was held without bail at the Adult Correctional Institutions on charges that include possession with the intent to sell a controlled substance; distribution of a controlled substance near a school; obstructing police; threatening a public official; and disorderly conduct.
Members of the Woonsocket Police Department’s narcotics unit said they arrested Gonzales on Wednesday after dispatch received a call that someone was trying to sell illegal drugs inside the Clinton Street facility. After they arrived, about 10:30 a.m., detectives said a library staffer pointed out the alleged culprit as a Gonzalez, who was “slouched low in the chair with a hood on, hands concealed and out of view...”
Police said he was “not reading a book” or doing “anything else a person would do in a library.”
A patron also told police he was sitting down in the library when Gonzalez, an apparent stranger, offered to sell him drugs.
The patron told police Gonzalez showed him bags of a white substance and “said that he smoked weed and sells cocaine and crack,” a police report says.
Police said they asked Gonzalez to stand for a frisk and found four packets of white powder in a pocket of his jeans, including two which later field- tested postive for cocaine. The other two bags were negative, however.
As police escorted Gonzalez from the library, detectives said he became agitated, began swearing at
them and told one officer, “I’ll put a (expletive) bullet in your head.” As police maneuvered him into their vehicle, Gonzalez “was spitting in the cruiser and ranting on.”
The investigation took another twist when police transported Gonzalez to the police station for booking and tried to confirm his identity. Though he says he’s from Lynn, Gonzalez wasn’t carrying an ID. And when investigators ran his fingerprints through a criminal database, they came back a match for a name that wasn’t Morino Gonzalez.
“There were indications that ICE had dealt with this subject and was interested in him,” a police report says. “His actual ID is not known at this time.”
Nevertheless, the suspected drug-dealer was arraigned in Sixth District Court under the name Gonzalez and federal ICE agents indicated that they intend to interview him, police said.
Meanwhile, a judge ordered Gonzelez, or whoever he is, held without bail on the city police charges pending a hearing on April 20.