by JOEL MARTINEZ
SOUTHWICK (WWLP) – Southwick police and Massachusetts State Police assigned to the Hampden County District Attorney’s Office arrested two Springfield men during two different investigations.
According to the Southwick Police Facebook page, Malcolm Wilson was found and arrested in Hartford, Connecticut, while Henry Mercado was found and arrested in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Both were wanted on different charges committed in Southwick.
In 2013, Wilson left the state after he was charged with trafficking cocaine in Southwick. Police said he was first found in North Carolina, but evaded them for over a year. In May, Southwick police and the Massachusetts State Police Fugitive Apprehension Unit eventually found Wilson in Hartford, where he was arrested with the help of Hartford police.
During Wilson’s arrest, police said they seized 2 handguns, 111 suspected oxycodone-acetaminophen pills, plastic bags containing suspected marijuana, 15.4 grams of suspected cocaine, 52.4 grams of suspected heroin, and $18,340 in cash.
Wilson is currently being held in Connecticut for gun and drug charges, and will be extradited to Massachusetts to face criminal charges.
In Mercado’s case, a warrant was issued for his arrested in March after he didn’t appear in Springfield Superior Court on sexual assault charges that happened in Southwick, during the summer of 2012.
In June, investigators discovered that Mercado was in Puerto Rico. On July 6, Mercado was arrested by Puerto Rico authorities and later extradited back to Massachusetts by Detectives from Southwick and the Massachusetts State Police.
