"Malden man in drug trafficking ring sentenced" by Gal Tziperman Lotan | Globe Correspondent, February 09, 2014
A Malden man was sentenced to 2½ years in jail on Friday for his part in a marijuana trafficking ring, a spokeswoman for the Middlesex district attorney said in a statement.
Brendan Joyner, 21, was one of 11 people arrested in 2013 for moving 400 pounds of marijuana from California to Massachusetts. He is the third member of the group, which the district attorney’s office called the “Maplewood Organization,” to plead guilty.
Joyner pleaded guilty to possession of a Class B substance, oxycodone; possession of a firearm, a .44 Ruger Super Blackhawk revolver, with a defaced serial number; improper storage of a firearm; and, unlawful possession of ammunition.
After his release, Joyner will have to submit to random drug testing and will not be allowed to own firearms, according to the district attorney’s office.
The investigation began in October 2012 when postal inspectors found marijuana in packages headed for addresses in Malden. Seven Massachusetts residents were arrested in March, and three more later in the year. A man from Union City, Calif., was also arrested in the case.
In October, Joyner’s brother, 21-year-old Joshua Joyner of Malden, was sentenced to two years in jail and three years on probation for distribution of a Class D substance and conspiracy to traffick more than 100 pounds of marijuana.
Herschel Senor, 35, of Medford, was sentenced in November to 2½ years in jail for possession of phencyclidine, also known as PCP, with intent to distribute.
Eight more people are awaiting trial, according to the district attorney’s office.
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Related: Malden's Million-Dollar Mail Order
Also see: Feeling Funny About This Post
It's not the weed:
"Police arrest dozens in busts targeting heroin" by Gal Tziperman Lotan | Globe Correspondent, February 09, 2014
Police have arrested more than two dozen people over the past few days in separate drug busts in the Merrimack Valley and Western Massachusetts following an increase in heroin overdoses.
In a coordinated sweep targeting heroin dealers, police officials from Lawrence, Methuen, Andover, Haverhill, and Salem, N.H., arrested 25 people on drug charges, a State Police spokesman said.
Two more people were arrested on heroin possession charges in Greenfield, and two young children — a 4-year-old and an 8-year-old — were taken away from the apartment where they lived.
Related: Heroin is Here
At least four people have died of heroin overdoses in Massachusetts this year, though state officials are still compiling overdose statistics and verified numbers were not available....
On Friday, officers from Greenfield, the Northwestern District Attorney’s Anti-Crime Task Force, and State Police served a search warrant at an apartment at 6 Oak Courts in Greenfield, Procopio said.
I'm not surprised. Not a good section of the town, city, whatever.
Caitlyn Shepard and Steven Sochocki, both 24, were arrested around 9 p.m. Friday, according to a statement from Greenfield Police.
Shepard and Sochocki were charged with possession of a Class A controlled substance and a Class E controlled substance.
Another woman will be charged at a later date with possession of a Class A drug, police said.
Shepard and Sochocki were released on bail from police department holding cells Friday at midnight, according to Detective Lieutenant Dan McCarthy. He did not have information on the date of their arraignment.
During a search of the apartment, officers found “a few bags of heroin” and empty packets of heroin. There were up to seven different brand stamps on the bags, police said.
The couple’s two young children were in the apartment at the time, Procopio said, adding that the children had not eaten all day.
Police officials brought the children food and subsequently handed them over to the Department of Children and Families....
Related: Massachusetts DCF: Then and Now
Yes, the poor, embattled DCF.
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Yeah, it's marijuana that is the problem.
