Raid on man’s home leads to drug charges

Police execution of a search warrant on the home of a suspected drug dealer in Connecticut led to a 36-year-old man being taken into custody for selling cocaine. According to sources, authorities seized an unspecified amount of cocaine, small plastic bags and more than $18,500 in cash from the residence. As a result of the search and seizure, the man received various drug charges for possession of narcotics, operating a drug factory and the sale of illegal drugs.

Court records indicate that the case against the accused man was built through the use of an informant who claims to have made controlled drug purchases. When police entered the man’s home at 9:30 a.m. on Jan. 22, the other tenants reportedly told them where to find the man’s bedroom. According to a detective, the accused man would not immediately open his door and was observed dropping a bag of white powder.

When the man’s fingerprints were entered into a police database, police allegedly discovered that the man had a previous criminal conviction listed under a different name than the one he had provided them with. The man was reportedly convicted of second-degree assault with a firearm in 2004 and deported to Brazil in 2007. Sources say that the man claimed each alias was his real name in two separate statements to authorities.

The accused man may have a reason for holding a significant amount of cash in his home that has nothing to do with drug sales. Because he may be an undocumented immigrant, it’s possible that he is unable to open a bank account. While building a defense against the drug charges, the man may choose to argue that the alleged drug activity in his home is not a large-scale operation as the charges indicate.

Source: The Middletown Press, “Alleged drug kingpin held on $250,000 bond“, Alex Gecan, January 23, 2014