About 25 pounds of Nevada marijuana will not hit the streets of Westfield after a raid by city, regional and federal authorities on a “mansion” on Hunter’s Slope Thursday afternoon.
Police report that a search warrant was executed at 25 Hunter’s Slope at 3:20 p.m. and resident Eric J. Dargie, 21, was arrested after he accepted delivery of a package containing 24 sealed institutional sized cans packed full with marijuana.
The raid force included seven city officers led by Det. Sgt. Ray Manos, officers from the Hampden County Drug Task Force, postal inspectors and a Homeland Security representative.
The evidence officer for the Westfield department, Det. Brian Fanion, was part of the team of local officers involved and reports that the raid was a result of information developed by postal inspectors who became suspicious of a large package en route to a city resident and secured a search warrant to confirm their suspicions.
Fanion said that when the inspectors opened the large box they found that it contained 24 large cans and, when two of the cans were opened, they were each found to be packed with marijuana. He said that when he inventoried the cans the next day he found that each can contained a little more than a pound of the contraband.
The box, he said, was resealed and, after coordinating with city police, the postal inspector “got a mail truck, drove it up there and the kid took delivery.”
Once the box was in Dargie’s possession, the officers descended on the house.
In a document filed in Westfield District Court in support of a criminal complaint for possession of a Class D drug with intent to distribute, city police report that the box was found in the kitchen and report the marijuana it contained was “in excess of personal consumption.”
The document reports that other narcotic paraphernalia was also seized, as was $11,900 in cash.
Dargie claimed, according to the document, to only be a middleman who was paid $500 for accepting the package and for delivering it to a Springfield resident he named.
Fanion said, however, that the presence of that much cash suggests he was, at least, wholesaling the contraband.
“Fifty to 75 thousand dollars is what I was told he was going to get, depending on how he sold it” Fanion said.
He said that the house on Hunter’s Slope belongs to the suspect’s parents and is quite an impressive residence.
“The place is a mansion”, Fanion said.
The box was mailed in Reno, Nevada, but Fanion said “it’s not a good address” and said that may have been one of the reasons the postal inspectors became interested in the box.
Dargie was transported to the station for booking after which, at 8 p.m., he was released from police custody on $2,000 cash bail
The bail document stipulates that he may not leave Massachusetts.
Dargie appeared for arraignment on Friday in Westfield District Court before Judge Philip A. Contant.
Contant continued the bail imposed at the police station and he was released pending a June 22 hearing.
Dargie petitioned the court for the return of his passport and wallet, seized by police, and for permission to leave the Commonwealth as he had been planning to leave for a one-week cruise with his girlfriend later that day.
Despite an objection by the Commonwealth, which also objected to his release on bail, Contant allowed Dargie to leave the Commonwealth and ordered Westfield police to return “forthwith” Dargie’s passport and wallet. Contant allowed police to make and retain a copy of the passport and copies of the contents of the wallet before they returned his property.
Manos reports that Dargie’s property was returned to him after he arrived at the police department about noon Friday but said that, by the time the paperwork was completed, his ship may have sailed without him.
