Unclear where drugs on plane were discovered
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Driver tried to run, police say
Mass. State Police
A routine traffic stop led to the seizure of four kilos of cocaine on Interstate 93 in Canton Saturday morning, Massachusetts state police said.
A Nissan Quest driven by Hector Rivera Martinez, 40, of Milwaukee, was stopped by police for motor vehicle violations.
More than Meth: The faces of drug arrests
When a trooper with a K-9 was called to the scene, Martinez jumped over the guardrail and down a steep, rocky embankment, police said.
Martinez was taken into custody a short time later and a search of the van found four kilos of cocaine, police said.
Martinez was charged with drug trafficking and is being held on $200,000 bail.
Town votes to suspend Lt. Thomas Foye without pay
LUDLOW, Mass. — A high-ranking Ludlow police officer charged with stealing drugs from the department’s evidence locker has been suspended without pay.
Lt. Thomas Foye had been suspended with pay since his arrest in August, but because he was indicted by a grand jury last week, the town’s Select Board voted unanimously Tuesday to suspend him without pay.
According to court documents, video surveillance captured the 49-year-old Foye entering the locked narcotics locker at the police station, where he appears to handle and open evidence bags. He is charged with tampering with evidence, theft of drugs from a dispensary and cocaine possession.
In a brief statement at Tuesday’s board meeting, the 25-year veteran thanked the board and said he “went into surgery a hero and came out a drug addict.”
Soraida Quinones faces several charges
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — A Springfield woman was arrested Monday night after police said they found cocaine hidden in a diaper bag that was in her vehicle.
A trooper on patrol on Carew Street stopped a Saab wagon for a motor vehicle violation, police said.
The Saab that was occupied by four people including a juvenile was operated by Soraida Quinones, 31.
A bag with a white powdery substance, believed to be cocaine, was located in a diaper bag within the passenger compartment, police said.
Quinones was arrested and charged with possession of a class B substance, receiving stolen property and operating after license suspension among other offenses.
Fitchburg, Mass., man is suspect
MASON, N.H. — New Hampshire police are looking for a man suspected of assaulting a police chief during a traffic stop in Mason.
The police department says Chief Barry Hutchins was trying to arrest 38-year-old Russell N. Monbleau of Fitchburg, Mass. on Friday night when Monbleau struck him several times and threw a metal chair at him knocking him to the ground.
Monbleau then ran into the woods. Police searched the area with dogs but were unable to find him.
Police arrested the driver of the car, 34-year-old Danielle Dickstein of Amherst on charges of possession of crack cocaine and marijuana.
Farak pleaded not guilty to evidence tampering, stealing
NORTHAMPTON, Mass. —A former chemist charged with stealing drugs from the state crime lab in western Massachusetts where she worked is spending Christmas in jail after a judge revoked her bail.
Hampshire Superior Court Judge Mary-Lou Rup on Monday granted the prosecution’s request to revoke Sonja Farak’s bail after cocaine was found in her system during a random drug test.
Farak, after initially denying taking any drugs, ackowledged snorting “a few lines” of cocaine at a party last week, Assistant District Attorney Beth Lux told the judge.
Attending the party may have also violated the curfew provision in the conditions of Farak’s release, according to Probation Department officials.
Defense attorney Elaine Pourinski asked Rup to stiffen Farak’s probation conditions rather than revoking bail.
Farak had gone to the party last week after an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting and did not know drugs would be present, the attorney said. It was her first violation after nearly a year of pre-trial release, she pointed out.
“This is a clear indication that she still has lots of work to do,” Pourinski said, adding her client is under “extreme pressure.”
Farak, 35, of Northampton, had been free on $5,000 bail.
She pleaded not guilty in January to tampering with evidence and stealing and possessing drugs. She removed drug samples from the Amherst lab, then replaced them with other substances while keeping the narcotics for her personal use, the prosecutor said.
More than 200 drug cases were dismissed from district and superior courts because Farak could not testify about the results of her drug testing, prsoecutors say.
Farak’s case is not connected to that of Annie Dookhan, who worked at a state drug lab in Boston. Dookhan was sentenced to three to five years in prison after pleading guilty last month to 27 counts.
Oli Scarff/ Getty Images
Nigella Lawson arrives at Isleworth Crown Court on Dec. 5, in London, England.
By Daniella Silva, NBC News
British authorities will review the trial of two ex-employees of celebrity chef Nigella Lawson for a possible drug investigation, the Metropolitan Police Service said on Sunday.
The announcement comes just two days after a London jury acquitted two former assistants of defrauding Lawson and her ex-husband, art-dealer Charles Saatchi, in a high-profile trial that inspired tabloid headlines around the world after allegations about Lawson’s drug use surfaced.
Sisters Francesca and Elisabetta Grillo had been accused of defrauding the couple of 685,000 pounds, or approximately $1.12 million, spent on designer clothes, handbags and expensive trips.
But the Grillos claimed their lavish personal spending on the couple’s credit cards was part of an agreement to keep quiet on Lawson’s drug use.
During the trial, Lawson, 53, denied the defense’s accusations that she abused cocaine, marijuana and prescription pills on a daily basis, but said she smoked marijuana occasionally towards the end of her ten-year marriage to Saatchi, and had taken cocaine in the past, but not regularly.
On Sunday, police said in a statement that a specialist team “will examine all the evidence emerging as part of a review into this matter and in conjunction with the Crown Prosecution Service, will determine an appropriate way forward.”
Police added that there was no “imminent prospect of a prosecution being mounted” against Lawson and that a senior investigating officer received legal advice that her admissions did not by themselves provide sufficient evidence to bring charges.
The trial drew attention for the details on the nature of the celebrity chef’s former marriage, which Lawson described as “intimate terrorism.” The couple divorced in July after making headlines over photographs showing Saatchi clasping his wife’s throat at a London restaurant.
Lawson said she was “disappointed but unsurprised” by the result of the trial, and claimed the Grillos had to tried to ruin her reputation.
“Over the three week trial, the jury was faced with a ridiculous sideshow of false allegations about drug use which made focus on the actual criminal trial impossible,” Lawson said in a statement issued by her publicist.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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