Man arrested in raid faces heroin charges

FBI agents along with Springfield Police officers raided an apartment in Springfield on Wednesday and detained several people, including a Puerto Rican grandfather from Massachusetts who is now facing multiple felonies.
http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20151005/NEWS02/710059949

Published October 5, 2015 in the Rutland Herald Man arrested in raid faces heroin charges By ERIC FRANCIS CORRESPONDENT WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — FBI agents along with Springfield Police officers raided an apartment in Springfield on Wednesday and detained several people, including a Puerto Rican grandfather from Massachusetts who is now facing multiple felonies including trafficking, sale of heroin and possession. Victor Castro, 49, of Holyoke, Mass., has been renting a room in the house where the raid took place for at least a month and has allegedly been participating in a large drug enterprise that was centered there, Windsor County Deputy State’s Attorney Glenn Barnes told Judge Nancy Corsones at Castro’s arraignment on Thursday afternoon. Although she acknowledged that Castro is not apt to get the maximum potential sentence of 36 years, he does face the “likelihood of substantial incarceration” and that, coupled with what she called Castro’s “utter lack of ties to Windsor County” led her to impose $125,000 bail in his case. Castro pleaded innocent to the charges Thursday. In an affidavit filed with the court, Springfield Police Office Anthony Moriglioni wrote that Springfield was assisting the FBI to “execute a federal arrest warrant” upon an unnamed suspect living in Springfield when Castro was discovered along with several other people inside the target’s residence. After discovering Castro had been renting his own room within the house, police searched it and found a silver tin containing 18 “bundles” of heroin that appeared to be packed for distribution, Moriglioni wrote. In all, Moriglioni said, police found a total of 174 bags of heroin stamped with the street brand name “PAID” along with 74 yellow prescription Clonazepam pills within Castro’s room. Castro, who had to have his arraignment translated into Spanish on Thursday afternoon, told the court that he makes less than $500 a month working at a car wash in his home state. The affidavit that was filed along with Castro’s case indicated that the unnamed suspect who was the focus of the federal investigation that prompted Wednesday’s raid was detained along with an unspecified number of other people who were inside the residence but it did not elaborate any further as to their current status.