Boston Police seize kilograms of fentanyl in Southwest Corridor area

Boston Police seized more than two kilograms of fentanyl and arrested five suspects following an investigation spurred by community complaints of suspected drug activity.

The investigation was focused on what police call the “Southwest Corridor area,” so named for the park that runs from the South End to Jamaica Plain, where community members have complained of increased drug activity since the shutdown of the Mass and Cass tent-city and open-air drug market.

“As a result of the coordinated operation,” the department said in a statement Saturday, “officers seized more than two kilograms of Fentanyl, thirty-two rounds of ammunition, digital scales, drug packaging materials, and over $3,000 in U.S. currency.”

BPD units in Roxbury, Mattapan, Dorchester, Allston/Brighton and Jamaica Plain partnered with the Youth Violence Strike Force, Massachusetts State Police, MBTA Police, and Boston Housing Authority Police to carry out the operation.

The department says that officers executed several search warrants at locations including 176 Stratton St. in Dorchester, 127 Hazelton St. in Mattapan, and 1059 Tremont St. in Roxbury.

This all comes as Boston continues to be hard hit from the opioid crisis at the Mass and Cass, and the spillover from the drug and human trafficking zone.

Those arrested are Ricky Wilson Soto-Arias, 36, of Dorchester; Doris Baez, 37, of Mattapan; Bryan Mejia, 31, of Mattapan; Jeil Hernandez, 44, of Boston; and Stephen Smith, 37, of Boston. All except Smith were charged with trafficking Class A drugs. Soto-Arias and Baez were also charged with unlawful possession of ammunition. Smith was charged on warrants issued out of Roxbury municipal court for breaking and entering in the nighttime and larceny over $250.

Developing.

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