logo
Hampden DA's office gives updates on suspects arrested in narcotics takedown

Hampden DA's office gives updates on suspects arrested in narcotics takedown

Yahoo05-06-2025
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – The Hampden District Attorney's Office has shared updates on two of the suspects involved in major drug distributions that were dismantled last month.
Hampden DA's Office Communications Director Payton North shared in a news release that Anthony Perez of Springfield is being held without the right to bail per a 58A hearing. He is scheduled for a bail hearing on July 16, and a trial date has not been set at this time.
DA Gulluni announces results of three major narcotics investigations in Springfield
An investigation began into Perez in the summer of 2024 in connection with fentanyl and heroin distribution in the Springfield area. Law enforcement discovered that Perez was being supplied by a large-scale drug trafficking organization operating both in Springfield and the Bronx, N.Y.
Perez was arraigned on January 17, 2025. In addition, 29 other individuals connected with the operation were arrested across several months, with Perez and his associates facing drug trafficking and firearm-related charges.
Ruben Luna, who was also arrested as part of the DA's narcotics takedown operation, had a 58A hearing on May 28. He is being held without the right to bail for 120 days.
Luna's charges stem from an investigation on May 22, in which state and Springfield police officers conducted searches at three locations. Luna is among three suspects who were arrested during the investigation, and law enforcement seized a large quantity of cocaine, heroin, and narcotic pills across the three locations.
22News will provide updates as more information becomes available.
WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on WWLP.com.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Key West man jailed on charges of illegal child and animal abuse material
Key West man jailed on charges of illegal child and animal abuse material

Miami Herald

time5 days ago

  • Miami Herald

Key West man jailed on charges of illegal child and animal abuse material

A Key West bartender is behind bars on charges involving child exploitation and animal abuse, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Jorge Tyler Perez, 28, is charged with one count of possession of child sexual abuse material and 14 counts of engaging in sexual activities involving animals — all third-degree felonies. The arrest follows a statewide FDLE initiative targeting individuals who exploit children and share abusive content online. The investigation began in November 2024 after the National Center for Missing and Endangered Children issued a cybertip indicating a Snapchat user had uploaded child sexual abuse material. Agents later identified the user as Perez and discovered he 'also uploaded videos of bestiality.' On Friday, FDLE agents executed a search warrant and seized an electronic device for analysis. Perez was arrested and booked into the Monroe County Jail. The Key West Police Department and Homeland Security Investigations assisted with the case, which is being prosecuted by the Office of the State Attorney for Florida's 16th Judicial Circuit. Authorities say the investigation remains active and ongoing. Perez is set to be arraigned on Aug. 1.

The Node: The Mad Journey from Terra to GENIUS
The Node: The Mad Journey from Terra to GENIUS

Yahoo

time6 days ago

  • Yahoo

The Node: The Mad Journey from Terra to GENIUS

Remember Terra? Do Kwon's layer 1 was designed in such a way that its native token, LUNA, worked in tandem with the network's algorithmic stablecoin, UST. When you minted new UST, you destroyed LUNA tokens (thereby constricting supply), and when you redeemed UST, you created new LUNA (expanding supply). That system worked wonderfully as long as UST experienced great demand — which it did, for a while, thanks to a 20% yearly interest on the coin supplied by Anchor Protocol. But in May 2022, huge selloffs caused UST to lose its $1 peg; market participants rushed to redeem their UST, creating a massive new amount of LUNA and pushing the token's price down, which of course led to more UST redemptions, and so on. Over $40 billion in market value was obliterated in 72 hours. Terra's collapse shook the crypto industry, which back then was levered to the gills. Crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital blew up, while crypto lenders such as Voyager, BlockFi and Celsius went bust. If that wasn't enough, the U.S. imposed sanctions on Ethereum's Tornado Cash, sending developers all over the world in a bit of a panic. After CoinDesk's Ian Allison reported in November 2022 that Alameda was quite possibly broke, people started yanking their funds out of FTX, which led Bankman-Fried to freeze withdrawals. It turned out that SBF had been fraudulently using FTX customer funds to palliate losses incurred by Alameda Research over the course of the years. Bankman-Fried was arrested (and subsequently sentenced to 25 years in prison) shortly after FTX filed for bankruptcy. Shortly after FTX's demise, SEC Chair Gary Gensler began an aggressive campaign against the sector, suing a huge number of crypto firms (including Coinbase and Kraken) and ushering in an era of 'regulation by enforcement' that was decried by the industry and friendly members of Congress alike. That wasn't the end of crypto's tribulations. Crypto lender Genesis and bitcoin miner Core Scientific were soon added to the list of casualties. Worse, in March 2023 three crypto-friendly banks (Signature, Silvergate and Silicon Valley Bank) suffered from bank-runs and collapsed, making it significantly more difficult for crypto firms to access the banking system. Nic Carter, a prominent crypto VC, accused the Biden administration of trying to debank the crypto industry by employing an Obama-era strategy, a theory which has since gained traction within Congress and the Trump administration. But the winds of fortune finally turned in crypto's favor. When BlackRock filed for a spot bitcoin ETF in June 2023, it felt like Larry Fink himself was shooting a flare in the dark, signaling that Wall Street was ready to embrace crypto. Two months later, Grayscale defeated the SEC in court on the matter of converting its bitcoin trust into an ETF. The agency had little choice than to greenlight a dozen spot bitcoin ETFs in January 2024, which later became the most successful new ETFs of all time. At first showing signs of reluctance about launching spot ether ETFs, the SEC suddenly scrambled to approve the products at the last minute. Some observers linked the change of heart to Trump's new friendliness towards the crypto industry, which contrasted with Joe Biden's hostility. The fact that the crypto industry donated a tremendous amount of money to the former's campaign (and to other pro-crypto politicians) certainly helped as well; we saw yesterday that the Democratic Party, once in lockstep with Elizabeth Warren's anti-crypto crusade, strongly voted in favor of both the GENIUS and Clarity bills. Trump's overwhelming victory in November sent shockwaves through Washington and the crypto industry. The new administration kept its word, though not without hiccups in the form of Trump- and Melania-themed memecoins. Ross Ulbricht is now a free man, and an executive order has been signed to constitute a bitcoin reserve (multiple states, like Texas, Arizona and New Hampshire, have followed suit). Treasury's OFAC has taken Tornado Cash off of the sanctions list, while the SEC has dropped most of its lawsuits and is gearing up to greenlight a bunch of new crypto ETFs. Debanking is no longer a concern. Congress, meanwhile, just passed the GENIUS Act (which creates a framework for regulating stablecoins (unthinkable in the wake of Terra's collapse!!) and will probably pass the Clarity Act (a more complex piece of legislation that assigns clear jurisdiction to the SEC and CFTC when it comes to crypto) before the end of the year. Not to mention that Coinbase stock is trading at record highs, Tether is now seen as one of the most successful businesses in the world, Circle has gone public, Core Scientific (back from the dead) is on track to get acquired by AI firm CoreWeave, and Michael Saylor's bitcoin evangelization has given birth to a horde of companies looking to follow in his footsteps to purchase as much BTC (or ETH or SOL or even DOGE) as they possibly can. All of these events have been reflected in bitcoin's price. The orange coin, which you could briefly buy for $16,000 after FTX collapsed, is now priced at roughly $120,000, and the total market capitalization of the crypto sector is near $4 trillion (up from $830 million in December 2022). Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data

‘Don't Lie for the Other Guy.' ATF targets straw purchases of guns
‘Don't Lie for the Other Guy.' ATF targets straw purchases of guns

Miami Herald

time6 days ago

  • Miami Herald

‘Don't Lie for the Other Guy.' ATF targets straw purchases of guns

In the year Ashley Perez has worked as a cashier for an indoor gun range, she has witnessed a grim trend that firearm retailers have seen in recent years. 'I had a homeless lady come in. ... She was trying to purchase a gun, but just with dollar bills. ... [Another time] a mother came in to buy her younger son a gun, saying, 'It's for me,' while the son was saying it's for him,' the 24-year-old described seeing last summer. Perez and her team at Top Gun Indoor Range Florida in Kendall identified the pattern in both cases almost instantly. They were tell-tale attempts at straw purchases — buying firearms for people legally prohibited from owning them. It's a federal crime that could land an a offender a $250,000 fine and a 15-year prison sentence. A 2022 act signed by then-President Joe Biden tacks on 10 more years behind bars if the gun is used to commit a felony, an act of terrorism or a drug-trafficking crime. In a public campaign, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is warning potential straw purchasers about those steep penalties. . 'The message behind the campaign is simple: If you're buying a gun for someone who can't legally own one, you are committing a crime,' said Florida Department of Law Enforcement Special Agent John Vecchio during a Friday press conference at the gun range. 'You're helping potentially arm someone with dangerous intentions.' Vecchio joined the ATF, Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office and National Shooting Sports Foundation at Top Gun to announce the newest iteration of the 'Don't Lie for the Other Guy' campaign, which aims to curb the crime. Next month, South Floridians can expect to see billboards and posters with messaging that includes 'Buy a gun for someone who can't and buy yourself 15 years in jail.' Listeners of top radio stations and podcasts will hear the same. The 25-year-old, nationwide campaign isn't changing its strategies, but instead focusing on South Florida, which is a magnet for domestic and international gun trafficking. 'The availability of firearms is higher here and the restrictions on sales are a little bit less than they are in some states,' explained Rob Cekada, the ATF's deputy director, on why the crime is prevalent in the area. 'One of the reasons we picked Miami ... there's a lot of firearms trafficking that begins here and ends up in the Caribbean and also ends up in Mexico as well.' But the real danger behind straw-purchasing, Cekada says, is how it arms South Florida felons and encourages violent crimes. The deputy director's latest investigation, he shared, is still turning up illegally traded guns at crime scenes that happened in Miami and Margate and are linked to two Florida straw purchasers who bought more than 48 firearms. A 2024 ATF report confirms the pipeline nationwide, revealing that of the 7,000+ cases between 2017 and 2021 in which firearms were peddled, 60% of the 'end users' had at least one prior felony conviction. 'Rarely do we recover a firearm at a crime scene that was purchased by the perpetrator,' said Hayden O'Byrne, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, at the briefing. He added that retailers such as Top Gun and other federal firearm licensees play a large role in preventing straw purchases, calling them 'the first line of defense.' FFLs are individuals or businesses allowed to manufacture, import and deal firearms and are required to renew the permit with ATF every three years. Because Florida gun laws require only federal firearm licensees — not private sellers — to conduct background checks when transferring firearms, employees such as Perez are crucial to preventing the crime. 'We look out for signs, that's the first thing we do. The second we see a person walk through the door, we see the way they stand, the way they're speaking, if they're grabbing their phone too much,' she said. 'We want our hands [clean], and we want to do it the right way and the legal way.' That's why the 'Don't Lie for the Other Guy' campaign is teaching retailers how to identify straw-purchasers. 'This is a two-prong approach,' said Joseph Bartozzi, president of the NSSF, which launched the campaign with the ATF in 2000. 'Part of it is we help to work with the retailers like this to teach them about how to identify the red flags.' The other half? To warn everyday people unaware of the crime's severity before they make the mistake. Bartozzi cleared up that though money is a key motivator for those initiating straw purchases, it's not the only one. Peer pressure and 'a sense of loyalty' to family or friends explain why some participate in the crime. Others are emotionally manipulated or threatened with physical harm by those barred from owning guns themselves. Some just don't know it's illegal. 'It's not just criminal, but even unwitting, law-abiding people that might be caught up with a boyfriend or girlfriend,' he said. 'We want to make sure everyone understands that it is a crime, even if it's unintentionally related to a crime that's going to be committed later on.'

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store