Evidence seized when city detectives executed a warrant on Collins Street Friday evening includes a spoon with cocaine residue and a small screwdriver apparently used as a spatula for filling tiny ziplock bags with narcotics. (Photo by Carl E. Hartdegen)
WESTFIELD – The city’s newest detective got his feet wet Friday evening when he executed his first search warrant and arrested his first alleged drug dealer.
Det. Sgt. Stephen K. Dickinson reports that Det. James Renaudette wrote an application for a warrant to conclude a month-long narcotics investigation and the warrant was granted.
A team of detectives, assisted by the neighborhood’s community policing officer, Douglas Lavalley, set up surveillance on the object of the warrant, Adeny Santiago, 23, of 25 Collins St. and the apartment complex where he lives. The officers made their presence known when he returned to his home and the officers approached him to serve the warrant.
After serving the warrant, Santiago, who had reportedly sold narcotics the an undercover officer earlier in the investigation, was searched and he was found to be in possession of $107 including currency which had been recorded before it was used to pay for the narcotics purchased by the undercover officer, Dickinson said.
Inside the apartment where Santiago lives with his mother (who was not home) the detectives began their search and Santiago told Renaudette that what he was looking for would be found in his sock drawer.
One of hundreds of tiny ziplock bags suspected to have been used to package narcotics is seen next to a U.S. coin for size reference. (Photo by Carl E. Hartdegen)
Dickinson reports that the detectives found, in the sock drawer and elsewhere in the suspect’s bedroom, a healthy marijuana plant growing under artificial light in the closet with two seedlings, four cellphones, a single bag of heroin stamped with the same logo found on the heroin which had been sold to the officer, more cash and a jar of rice.
Inside the jar with the rice (which Dickinson said is routinely used by narcotics dealers to keep contraband dry) were 24 more bags of heroin.
Also found were a digital scale and a variety of packaging, both used and unused, which included tiny ziplock plastic bags far too small to hold more than a pinch of powder.
A healthy marijuana plant discovered to be growing in a closet under artificial light was seized when a warrant was executed by city detectives on Collins Street Friday evening. (Photo by Carl E. Hartdegen)
The used plastic bags found were tested and found to contain cocaine residue and one of the bags was large enough to suggest that it had contained a larger quantity which had been divided into smaller portions for sale.
What was not found, Dickinson said, were any indications of personal use.
He said that Santiago said that he uses five bags of heroin a day but said that he does not inject it and instead ‘snorts’ it with his nose using a straw which he discards promptly so his mother won’t find them.
Dickinson said that typically when a heroin user’s trash is inspected empty heroin bags are numerous but neither empty bags nor straws were found although both his apartment and vehicle were searched.
The absence of indications of heroin use are significant because it suggests that Santiago is not a heroin user selling surplus amounts to support his habit but is instead in the business for profit.
Another indication that Santiago is not an addict, Dickinson suggests, it that the number of bags of heroin found is considerably in excess of his professed need.
The detective said that heroin addicts seldom can stockpile heroin, both because of financial limitations and because they are frequently unable to resist using whatever is available.
Santiago was arrested for distribution offenses which are considered to be more serous that possession charges.
He was charged with cultivation of marijuana, possession of heroin with intent to distribute and possession of cocaine with intent to distribute.
He is expected to be arraigned Monday in Westfield District Court.
