OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS FOR DRUG BUST TEAM

WORCESTER-- Juan Colon opened the door for city police to a major heroin
and cocaine bust early yesterday. Officers reciprocated by opening the door
for him to a cell at Police Headquarters.

It was a trade that the officers will gladly make anytime. It's also one
that has them shaking their heads with both laughter and disbelief.

The story begins at 8:20 Thursday night at a second-floor apartment at 19
Hancock St. Sgt. Thomas J. Gaffney said Vice Squad officers had obtained a
search warrant for the address following an investigation into a small drug
dealing operation in the city.

The officers were assisted by Gang Unit, Canine Unit, SWAT team and
Operations Division officers because some of the suspects were believed to
carry weapons.

The sergeant said the bust proved to be fairly routine. Officers
confiscated a small amount of cocaine and marijuana, as well as a shotgun,
a 9 mm pistol, ammunition, drug packaging materials and $290 in cash.

The only catch, Sgt. Gaffney said, was that officers arrested only five
suspects in the apartment. They were looking for six.

Believing the sixth suspect, identified as Benjamin Povez, might be hiding
in the first-floor apartment at that address, officers knocked on the door.
The sergeant said Mr. Colon opened the door and the officers asked if it
would OK for them to search the apartment.

That's when the fun -- for the police -- started.

"We ask if we can come in and he says, 'It's all right with me, but let me
check with my girlfriend,' " Sgt. Gaffney recalled. "Honest to God, he
leaves the door wide open and goes to talk to the woman. And there, eight
feet in front of us on a coffee table, is an electronic weighing scale that
drug dealers like to use and what certainly looks like a lot of heroin."

It was.

The sergeant said officers immediately arrested Mr. Colon, 43, of that
address, and Yanira Perez, 21, of Lawrence. Police then obtained a search
warrant for the first-floor apartment and returned at 12:20 a.m. yesterday.

On the coffee table and elsewhere in the apartment they found more than 100
ounces of nearly pure heroin and 28 grams of cocaine. Sgt. Gaffney said the
drugs have a street value of more than $100,000. Officers also confiscated
a loaded 9 mm handgun and $2,822 in cash.

"I tell you it was like a heroin lab inside there," he said. "There were
scales, a logo stamp for the packages for the drugs. There must have been
50,000 empty individual plastic packets that easily could have been filled
with the drugs in that room."

The sergeant said Mr. Colon and Ms. Perez were charged with trafficking in
cocaine and heroin, and illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition.

Arrested in the earlier, second-floor raid were Nakia Lane, 26, of 42
Whipple St.; Montague Edmonds, 27, of 14 Russell St.; Shannon Perras, 19,
of 68 A Millbury Ave., Millbury; Maritza Colon, 19, of 14 Village Way,
Webster; and Dale Atkins, 39, of 19 Hancock St. They were charged with
carrying a firearm without a license, illegal possession of ammunition; and
possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, and possession of marijuana.

Capping a successful day for the Vice Squad was the arrest of Mr. Povez at
9:20 last night. He was spotted by a Vice Squad officer walking on Lincoln
Street. Mr. Povez faces the same charges as the five other suspects in the
second-floor raid.

"Sometimes we do get lucky," Sgt. Gaffney said with a laugh.