State and local police arrested ten people in Pittsfield, Adams and North Adams on Friday, disrupting a drug dealing and firearm trafficking operation in Berkshire County. All ten were arraigned on Monday. Charges included trafficking cocaine, heroin and fentanyl and possession with intent to distribute.
Berkshire County District Attorney Timothy Shugrue led a three-month investigation before the arrests were made.
"These people... that are selling the drugs are not addicts. These are business people. They are here to make money and to make a lot of money," Shugrue said. "We were able to disrupt it before it had gotten too big."
Police seized cocaine, heroin and fentanyl pills with a total street value of about $200,000.
"We are addressing the drug issue that is coming into our county," Shugrue said. "It was a very detailed, very elaborate investigation into major drug dealing."
Police also seized 20 firearms, including large-capacity assault rifles.
"All of this to create a safer community for all of us and to send a message of zero tolerance," Adams Police Chief K. Scott Kelly said in a statement. "It comforts me to know that everyone went home safe from something that is never without its dangers.”
Shugrue said because of the large numbers of police, some residents thought it was an ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) raid. "It wasn't [ICE]", Shugrue said, "It was our efforts in making a concerted effort to hit 23 locations and 23 warrants, all at the same time. And that's why there was such a big presence on Friday."
Berkshire and Middlesex state police detective units took part in the operation, along with local police departments from Adams, North Adams, Great Barrington, Pittsfield — and Lowell in Middlesex County. Lowell police tried to execute a search warrant as part of the same investigation, according to Shugrue, but that individual remains at large.
Shugrue said his office is also focused on getting people who are arrested in the district courts into treatment for drug addiction.
"But at the same time, too, I have to make sure that we're getting rid of the supply that's coming in," he said.
