A judge ordered a former western Massachusetts aide to Gov. Maura Healey held without bail following a dangerousness hearing Friday that came only days after he was arrested and pleaded not guilty to cocaine trafficking charges, according to court records.
Prosecutors said they seized roughly eight kilos of cocaine that were to be delivered over the weekend to a state building in Springfield where LaMar Cook worked. Cook, 45, served as the deputy director of Healey’s western Massachusetts office until he was fired Saturday.
Springfield District Court Judge Kevin Maltby ruled that Cook was dangerous during the Friday hearing and ordered authorities to hold him at the Hampden County House of Correction, court records show.
Cook’s attorney, Kedar Ismail, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Investigators argued in a court document that they believed Cook was a potential “flight risk due to the amount of money that was lost due to law enforcement seizure of the suspected cocaine.”
“Investigators further learned that Cook has been known to travel internationally, and recent[ly] went on a trip to Mexico in September,” they wrote in court documents.
State police investigators said in court documents that law enforcement officials in Kentucky intercepted 7,800 grams of cocaine that were addressed to the Governor’s Office at the Springfield State Office Building on Dwight Street.
Massachusetts State Police took possession of the drugs, and an undercover trooper posing as a UPS delivery driver conducted a “controlled delivery” of 225 grams of cocaine Saturday to the state office building in Springfield, according to court documents.
During the delivery, Trooper Tucker Bixby encountered a security guard who said the package containing the cocaine could be left with the security guard, court documents said. But Bixby said he needed to deliver the package “in hand to someone.”
The security guard called someone, who Bixby said in the court document was Cook. According to Bixby, Cook said he was expecting a parcel for the office and would come retrieve it.
After a few minutes, Cook showed up, acknowledged that the address on the package was addressed to his office, and said he would bring it inside, according to court documents.
Bixby asked Cook if the package belonged to him, and Cook replied that “he was not sure who it belonged to, but he would bring it inside the office, which conflicted with his earlier statement while on the phone,” the trooper wrote.
Bixby said at this point, he believed authorities were at risk of losing the cocaine if it were allowed to go inside the building.
The trooper gave “the predetermined signal to the arrest team to move in and delayed handing over the subject parcel until the arrest team arrived,” Bixby wrote in court documents.
Cook then began “to become suspicious as I delayed handing him the parcel,” Bixby wrote in the documents.
“Cook began walking back towards his truck, and I asked if he was not taking the subject parcel. Cook stated that I could leave it with security as he approached his truck. At that time, the arrest team moved in, detained Cook,” Bixby wrote in court documents.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
Copyright 2025 WBUR
