Wakefield bust nets hundreds of grams of cocaine

August 13, 2008 02:04 PM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – +

By Brian Ballou, Globe Staff

A 41-year-old man is facing cocaine trafficking charges after police allegedly found a large amount of the drug when they stopped his minivan yesterday afternoon in the suburban town of Wakefield.

Miguel Fernandez, a Mexican citizen living in Nashua, N.H., was stopped on New Salem Street. Police said they found 232 grams of cocaine, wrapped in about 30 small plastic bags. The street value of the cocaine was estimated at between $18,000 and $20,000. Police said they also found $2,000 in cash and two cellphones.

Fernandez was arrested and his minivan was seized.

"This is a lot of cocaine. It's a lot of cocaine for Wakefield, and it's a lot of cocaine for a lot of towns and municipalities," Wakefield Police Chief Rick Smith said at a news conference this afternoon.

Smith said the arrest was a result of a four- to six-month investigation by Wakefield police, other area departments, the FBI, and the DEA. He did not offer any further details on Fernandez's alleged crimes, saying the case was a "tangled web" and the investigation is continuing.

Fernandez was arraigned today in Middlesex Superior Court on a cocaine trafficking charge and was held in lieu of $150,000 cash bail.

He also faces an arraignment in Lowell District Court this afternoon or tomorrow on a warrant for a previous cocaine trafficking charge.