WESTFIELD – It may be gratifying to have children interested in following their parents in the family business but, when the parents are dealing in illegal drugs, children might be well advised to find another career path.
City detectives executed a warrant Friday night at 15 Fowler Street and, when the dust had settled, Jose and Yaribeth Velez were under arrest on the same charge, possession of a Class D drug (marijuana) with intent to distribute, as Yaribeth Velez’s son, Joel Hernandez.
Detectives led by Det. Sgt. Stephen K. Dickinson, augmented by the department’s special response team commanded by Sgt. Jeffrey Baillargeon, executed the warrant at 9:11 p.m. and the overwhelming force represented by the nine officers participating in the raid ensured that no resistance was offered.
Dickinson said that it is his policy to utilize the special response team in any case in which as suspect has a history of violence or may have a firearm.
Hernandez was found on a couch in the first floor apartment and had a number of plastic bags containing “a greenish/brown leaf matter” which tested positive for marijuana in his possession.
Also near where Hernandez was sitting were found plastic bags and a scale with marijuana residue on it.
Det. Timothy Grady, in a document filed in Westfield District Court to support a criminal complaint, reports that present in the apartment were three persons all of whom said that they “were there to get marijuana from Joel Hernandez.”
Also seized was a cell phone which, Grady reports, rang repeatedly while they were dealing with Hernandez.
Grady reports he answered the phone and found that a caller was asking for “an eighth” which he took to mean an eighth of an ounce of marijuana.
Grady reports that he set up the deal in a Main Street parking lot and subsequently made the rendezvous with a second officer.
The officers were approached, after additional phone calls, by two young men from Vermont who admitted that they had been hoping to purchase marijuana with $47 they had in their possession.
The cash was seized but no charges were filed.
When the warrant was executed, Jose and Yaribeth Velez were not at home but returned when a child called them to tell them that police were at their home.
Grady reports that, although no narcotics packaged for sale were found in their bedroom, there was a wide variety of packaging and paraphernalia found, much of which was contaminated with either cocaine or marijuana residue.
A supply of unused plastic bags and many plastic bags with corners cut off were found along with a sifter, a digital scale and a quantity of a white powder which tested negative for cocaine. Grady stated in his report that the powder found is typical of “an adulterant (used) to increase the quantity of the product.”
Grady reports that the sifter, which tested positive for cocaine residue, was likely to have been used to combine the inert powder with cocaine.
Dickinson said that Jose Velez admitted that he sold cocaine and confirmed that his product had been adulterated to increase its apparent value.
Small amounts of cocaine and other drugs are often measured into a plastic bag and the corner containing the contraband is then cut off to reduce the size of the otherwise unwieldy resulting package.
Jose Miguel Velez, 40, and Yaribeth Velez, 35, of 15 Fowler St., were each arrested both for possession of a Class B drug with intent to distribute and for possession of a Class D drug with intent to distribute.
Hernandez, 18, also of 15 Fowler St., was arrested for possession of a Class D drug with intent to distribute.
A relative brought Hernandez $40 he needed to pay the bail service charge when he was released from the police station on his personal recognizance.
At his arraignment Monday in Westfield District Court, he was again released on his personal recognizance pending a June 12 hearing.
His mother, Yaribeth Velez, was released on $200 cash bail pending a hearing on the same date.
Jose Velez was held in lieu of $500 cash bail, also pending a June 12 hearing.
