By BOB MARTIN
Eagle Times Staff
CLAREMONT, N.H. — Claremont Police executed a search warrant at 50 Central Street last Friday, making four arrests and seizing a “large amount of suspected crack cocaine, fentanyl and U.S. currency.”
Brandon Stevens, 42, of Claremont was arrested for two counts of possession of controlled drugs, breach of bail and conspiracy to commit drug sales (crack cocaine).
William Dancy, 18, of Springfield, Massachusetts was arrested for conspiracy to commit drug sales (crack cocaine); conspiracy to commit drug sales (fentanyl/heroin); and possession of controlled drugs.
Melissa Robinson, 43, of Claremont, was arrested for the sale of controlled drugs (crack cocaine) and sale of controlled drugs (fentanyl/heroin).
Sonia Bartley, 48, of Claremont, was arrested for conspiracy to commit drug sales (crack cocaine); conspiracy to commit drug sales (fentanyl/heroin); control drug act: control of premises; and breach of bail.
“In response to complaints about possible illegal activity at a Central Street apartment building, the Claremont Police Department conducted a focused investigation into narcotics distribution over the past week,” a release by Chief Brent Wilmot stated. “Claremont Patrol Officers, monitoring the activity of that building, made contact with numerous people and developed probable cause that the occupants of the building were possessing and distributing crack cocaine and/or fentanyl.”
Wilmot said that Claremont Police executed a search warrant on Feb. 7 and about 20 grams of crack, 8.5 grams of suspected fentanyl and $2,500 in cash was recovered.
“This is all coming from regular, routine patrol work,” Wilmot said. “We get complaints about certain neighborhoods or houses within the neighborhood, and we focus on that and monitor it for short duration stops and criminal behavior. If there’s a chance to have an interaction, we do, and then we see how far we can take that. In this case we made contact with a few different people and gathered enough evidence to get a search warrant of the property.”
Wilmot said that it is important to get drugs off the streets and make these kinds of arrests so they can lead to more down the line. He added that they understand that to combat the scourge of addiction they need to come at it in a prevention, enforcement and treatment standpoint.
“Not any one of those three prongs is going to work,” Wilmot said. “You can’t do just prevention, enforcement or treatment. You have to do all three. The goal, in terms of enforcement, is to find out the suppliers and rid the community of them and then target the end users for treatment and identify people more susceptible to addiction to focus prevention efforts.”
There tends to be a cycle between dangerous drugs like heroin, fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine and crack as being the prevalent drug. Lately there has been an uptick in crack cocaine, as previously noted by Newport and Springfield, Vermont Police officials after several large busts. This is the case in the city, as well, Wilmot said.
“We are definitely seeing more crack right now,” Wilmot said. “We were seeing a lot of meth for a while and are still seeing a good amount of it, but more recently we’re seeing a lot of crack. My guess is it comes down to supply and demand.”
Wilmot said the community is probably principally supplied by the larger cities to the south, including Hartford, Connecticut, and Massachusetts cities like Springfield and Lawrence.
Wilmot said arrests like this make an impact in the community, making a dent and also showing other community members that the police are doing what they can.
“We will continue to follow up on leads, shake trees, and see what fruit will fall,” Wilmot said.
Wilmot said the operation will have a “substantial impact on the narcotics trade in the city of Claremont.”
“The Claremont Police Department, in partnership with our allied law enforcement agencies, will aggressively work to interrupt the distribution of dangerous drugs into our community,” Wilmot stated. “More arrests are expected as a result of the information we collected on Friday.”
All four subjects were detained at the Sullivan County House of Corrections until their arraignment in the 5th Circuit Court, Claremont District on Feb. 10.
Sonia Bartley.
