State Police Crackdown In Western Mass Yields Over 100K Bags Of Fentanyl & More

The "War on Drugs" rolls on, which I'm sure is no surprise to anyone. However, fellow Berkshire County residents, you'll be happy to hear that a major battle was just won by the good guys!

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According to a media statement courtesy of the Mass State Police(MSP), a major drug-trafficking ring centered in western Massachusetts has been dealt a serious blow by the forces of good.

The MSP reports that after a long investigation conducted by the Mass State Police Task Force with the help of various partner agencies, eight people have been arrested and a copious amount of drugs have been taken off the streets.

And believe me, I'm not kidding when I refer to the number of various drugs seized as "copious". According to the media statement, multiple kilos of fentanyl and cocaine along with almost 20 pounds of marijuana.

Not to mention over $100,000 in cash and three firearms. Quite the bounty, right? As I mentioned, this was a major drug trafficking ring. And consider this: They seized 2.3 kilograms of a drug that was packaged as heroin but later after much of it was field tested turned out to be fentanyl.

And the fentanyl was packaged in individual small baggies. Over 111,000 of them! That's a major win for law enforcement!

The investigation, which focused on Hampden County, was begun last year in 2022. Take a look at the following list of what was seized in addition to the fentanyl packaged as heroin as a result of the long investigation from the MSP media statement:

1. 9.5 kilograms of suspected cocaine;
2. 28 grams of suspected fentanyl pills;
3. 18 pounds of marijuana;
4. approximately $104,000 in US currency;
5. six motor vehicles associated with the drug organization operations; and
6. three handguns: a Browning 1911 .380 caliber with ammunition, a loaded SCCY CPX-2, and a loaded Smith and Wesson .357 Magnum.

Eight men (five from Springfield, three from Holyoke) have been arrested as part of the drug trafficking ring on various dates between January 27th and February 17th. Kudos all around to everyone involved in the investigation!

For more on the story, check out the Mass State Police's Facebook page here.