Thursday, 4:30 PM
State trooper faces federal OxyContin charges
By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff
A Massachusetts State Police trooper, who spent much of his career targeting drug dealers, and a retired trooper were arrested today on federal charges for allegedly running an OxyContin trafficking ring and for extortion.
Mark Lemieux, of Norfolk, who joined the Metropolitan District Commission police in 1987 and became a trooper when that force was consolidated with the State Police in 1992, was arrested along with former state trooper Joseph Catanese, of Sandwich, and two other people, including Lemieux's girlfriend.
Lemieux had been assigned to the Bristol County Drug Force, which operates out of the district attorney's office in New Bedford. He was credited with being one of three officers who initiated the investigation that led to the federal prosecution in the 1990s of the highly publicized Charlestown "Code of Silence" case, in which witnesses broke their silence to help convict a ring responsible for drug trafficking and murder in that close-knit section of Boston.
Catanese had also worked on that Bristol County task force, but retired from the State Police in 2004.
All the defendants are scheduled to appear today in federal court in Boston. The others arrested were Lemieux's live-in girlfriend, Tara Drummey, and Patrick McCarthy of Yarmouth.
Lemieux is accused of approaching a drug dealer last June and arranging for him to use Drummey as a courier so that she could make some money, according to an affidavit filed in federal court. Drummey allegedly made trips to Florida to get OxyContin from doctors and pharmacists and delivered the pills to the dealer for a fee.
The scheme began to unravel last November after the dealer was stopped by State Police at a security checkpoint at Logan International Airport. He was ready to board a flight to Fort Lauderdale carrying a large quantity of OxyContin and $21,149 cash, according to the affidavit, written by Lieutenant Thomas. J. Coffey of the Massachusetts State Police.
The dealer, who is now a cooperating witness, had been an informant for Lemieux, according to the affidavit.
