GOOD POLICE WORK LEADS TO SUCCESSFUL MARIJUANA STING

Thanks to good citizenship, good police work and a little bit of luck,
the police were able to make an arrest and prevent the delivery of
more than 30 pounds of marijuana.

A suspect, Javier Rivera, 33, of Bristol, was charged Wednesday with
possession of marijuana and possession of more than one kilogram of
marijuana with intent to sell.

His arrest was set up when Airborne Express alerted West Hartford
police to a suspicious 60-pound package. Police used a dog to sniff
the package and determine that it might contain marijuana. They
eventually found five individually wrapped packages of the illegal
substance inside.

West Hartford and Bristol police then set up a sting to snare a
suspect. A police detective dressed as an Airborne Express agent
handled the delivery, bringing the package -- without the drugs -- to
Rivera, the person to whom it was addressed, at his place of
employment in Bristol. When Rivera accepted the delivery an arrest was
made.

It will take some time to straighten this all out -- the return
address was a false number in Los Angeles and Rivera claims he was
being paid to hand the box over to someone named "Eddie." Still, it is
fairly obvious that several parties deserve credit for possibly
keeping an illegal substance from reaching the streets. Airborne
Express did its civic duty reporting something strange they were being
asked to handle. The West Hartford and Bristol police were prompt in
response and handled it well, leading to the arrest.

While a little bit of luck got the ball rolling in this case, it was
good citizenship and good police work that lead to the arrest.