UNDERCOVER DRUG BUYS LEAD TO ARREST IN HEROIN OD

BRENTWOOD, N.H. - Months of work by an undercover police officer
helped authorities catch an accused drug dealer and his driver as
part of their probe into the overdose death of an 18-year-old woman,
according to Kingston police Chief Donald Briggs.

One of Kingston's four undercover operatives had been buying drugs
from 23-year-old [Name redacted], Kingston, even before former
Sanborn Regional High School student Caitlyn Brady died of a heroin
overdose last March, Briggs said.

[Name redacted] faces a felony charge of providing a controlled drug
that later proved fatal. No one in the case has been charged with
sale of narcotics at this point in the investigation.

Briggs wouldn't say how the undercover officer was able to establish
a link between [Name redacted] and Brady's boyfriend - [Name
redacted], 21, Newton.

Authorities say [Name redacted] bought the heroin, which later killed
Brady, from [Name redacted].

But the undercover operation has shed some light on how the drugs
moved to New Hampshire, and what happened to them afterward, Briggs said.

[Name redacted] and [Name redacted], 22, Kingston, frequently worked
together, Briggs said. The chief said [Name redacted] was generally
the driver in drug sale operations, as prosecutors allege in this
particular case.

[Name redacted] faces a charge of being an accomplice; prosecutors
say he drove [Name redacted] to an undisclosed location in
Massachusetts so that [Name redacted] could buy heroin. After that,
prosecutors say, [Name redacted] sold the heroin to [Name redacted],
who gave it to Brady, who overdosed and died.

County Attorney Jim Reams said [Name redacted], the young woman's
boyfriend, threw the drug paraphernalia away in a Dumpster some
distance from his house, trying to hide the evidence. The Dumpster
was in Plaistow, Briggs said.

Reams has said getting the three men indicted was extremely difficult.

Of the more than 150 drug overdose deaths statewide this year, Reams
said authorities are seldom able to prosecute those who provided the
drugs, let alone the chain of people who sold the drugs that finally
resulted in a death.

"It's rare that we have a case where we can put it together," Reams said.

But while the county attorney said a link between a drug's dealers
and its eventual victims is critical, one attorney said the state's
case is targeting people on the periphery of the March overdose.

Speaking in court Wednesday, attorney Neil Reardon, who represented
[Name redacted], stressed Brady's personal responsibility in choosing
to take heroin. He also said [Name redacted] was "on the fringes" of
the state's case, even if prosecutors could prove he had driven [Name
redacted] to buy heroin in Massachusetts.

The three men indicted on charges related to Brady's death could all
face life in prison, although Reams said officials haven't decided
whether to pursue those sentences.

In the case of Brady's March overdose, he said, officers are
investigating the sale across state lines and hoping to capture those
involved in selling the drugs to [Name redacted]. Aside from
Massachusetts state police, Reams wouldn't identify specific Bay
State law enforcement agencies involved in the operation.

Reams also declined to say whether [Name redacted] and [Name
redacted] were taking heroin with Brady, or even if [Name redacted]
and Brady were taking it together.

Reams also declined to comment on the allegation by Gayle Brady,
Caitlyn Brady's mother, that [Name redacted] might actually have
injected the young woman with heroin before she died, instead of
simply giving it to her.