New Bedford Guide Your Guide to New Bedford and South Coast, MA
“Massachusetts State Police narcotics investigators and their local police partners continue to interdict large-scale dealers of fentanyl pills. In addition to the arrest by the MSP’s CINRET-South task force, announced yesterday, of BESTLEE VAZQUEZ for trafficking fentanyl pills passed off as oxycodone, the same task force last month seized approximately 47,000 fentanyl pills as part of a different investigation. Those pressed fentanyl pills, which were blue and stamped with the marking M-30, also resembled real 30-milligram pharmaceutical-grade oxycodone pills.
The February seizure in southeastern Massachusetts was part of a still ongoing investigation into fentanyl pill tracking in Bristol and Plymouth counties. The investigation was begun in January 2023 by the MSP CINRET-South unit. CINRET is an acronym for Commonwealth Interstate Narcotics Reduction and Enforcement Team, and the South unit is comprised of State Troopers, Brockton and East Bridgewater Police Officers, federal agents, and a National Guard analyst. Middleborough Police also assisted in the investigation.
The street value of the approximately 47,000 pills, if sold to drug users at current 30-milligram oxycodone prices, is approximately $1.23 million.
The pills, along with $85,000 cash in suspected drug trafficking proceeds, were seized during the execution of a court -authorized search warrant. The Massachusetts State Police Special Tactical Operations Team, the department’s high-risk entry tactical unit, made entry into the location that was searched. The target of the investigation is not being identified in order protect the integrity of ongoing operations.
The MSP operated three regional CINRET units, one each in southeastern Massachusetts, northeastern Massachusetts, and western Massachusetts. Within each CINRET unit, Troopers and their local police and federal partners work side by side on lengthy, complex investigations aimed at stemming the flow of illicit narcotics into Massachusetts communities.”-Massachusetts State Police.
