Pubdate: Sat, 07 Jul 2001 Source: Worcester Telegram & Gazette (MA) Copyright: 2001 Worcester Telegram & Gazette Contact: http://www.telegram.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/509 Author: Edward J. Canty and Jay Whearley OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS FOR DRUG BUST TEAM WORCESTER-- Juan Colon opened the door for city police to a major heroin and cocaine bust early yesterday. Officers reciprocated by opening the door for him to a cell at Police Headquarters. It was a trade that the officers will gladly make anytime. It's also one that has them shaking their heads with both laughter and disbelief. The story begins at 8:20 Thursday night at a second-floor apartment at 19 Hancock St. Sgt. Thomas J. Gaffney said Vice Squad officers had obtained a search warrant for the address following an investigation into a small drug dealing operation in the city. The officers were assisted by Gang Unit, Canine Unit, SWAT team and Operations Division officers because some of the suspects were believed to carry weapons. The sergeant said the bust proved to be fairly routine. Officers confiscated a small amount of cocaine and marijuana, as well as a shotgun, a 9 mm pistol, ammunition, drug packaging materials and $290 in cash. The only catch, Sgt. Gaffney said, was that officers arrested only five suspects in the apartment. They were looking for six. Believing the sixth suspect, identified as Benjamin Povez, might be hiding in the first-floor apartment at that address, officers knocked on the door. The sergeant said Mr. Colon opened the door and the officers asked if it would OK for them to search the apartment. That's when the fun -- for the police -- started. "We ask if we can come in and he says, 'It's all right with me, but let me check with my girlfriend,' " Sgt. Gaffney recalled. "Honest to God, he leaves the door wide open and goes to talk to the woman. And there, eight feet in front of us on a coffee table, is an electronic weighing scale that drug dealers like to use and what certainly looks like a lot of heroin." It was. The sergeant said officers immediately arrested Mr. Colon, 43, of that address, and Yanira Perez, 21, of Lawrence. Police then obtained a search warrant for the first-floor apartment and returned at 12:20 a.m. yesterday. On the coffee table and elsewhere in the apartment they found more than 100 ounces of nearly pure heroin and 28 grams of cocaine. Sgt. Gaffney said the drugs have a street value of more than $100,000. Officers also confiscated a loaded 9 mm handgun and $2,822 in cash. "I tell you it was like a heroin lab inside there," he said. "There were scales, a logo stamp for the packages for the drugs. There must have been 50,000 empty individual plastic packets that easily could have been filled with the drugs in that room." The sergeant said Mr. Colon and Ms. Perez were charged with trafficking in cocaine and heroin, and illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition. Arrested in the earlier, second-floor raid were Nakia Lane, 26, of 42 Whipple St.; Montague Edmonds, 27, of 14 Russell St.; Shannon Perras, 19, of 68 A Millbury Ave., Millbury; Maritza Colon, 19, of 14 Village Way, Webster; and Dale Atkins, 39, of 19 Hancock St. They were charged with carrying a firearm without a license, illegal possession of ammunition; and possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, and possession of marijuana. Capping a successful day for the Vice Squad was the arrest of Mr. Povez at 9:20 last night. He was spotted by a Vice Squad officer walking on Lincoln Street. Mr. Povez faces the same charges as the five other suspects in the second-floor raid. "Sometimes we do get lucky," Sgt. Gaffney said with a laugh. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth