A 34-year-old Newton man who was arraigned yesterday in Roxbury District Court and charged with drug trafficking and other offenses was ordered held on $300,000 cash bail, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley announced.
AMANDO AVILA (D.O.B. 7/16/74) was charged with trafficking over 200 grams of a Class A substance, drug trafficking within 1000 feet of a school or park, and operating a motor vehicle without a license. Citing the facts and circumstances of the case, Assistant District Attorney Migdalia Nalls recommended that Avila be held on $750,000 cash bail; Roxbury Court Judge Edward Redd set bail at $300,000, and ordered Avila to return to court on July 28 for a probable cause hearing.
Nalls told the court that members of the Boston Police Department Drug Control Unit and Massachusetts State Police troopers were contacted by federal authorities from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency and informed that Avila, a Mexican native, had two kilos of heroin for sale. ICE then provided the drug control officers with a phone number to reach Avila.
Officers with the Drug Control Unit, with assistance from state troopers, arranged for an undercover officer to contact Avila and make a controlled buy and exchange of heroin and cash, Nalls said.
That evening, an undercover officer called Avila and told him he wanted to purchase two kilos of heroin. The undercover officer and the defendant agreed to meet at a supermarket parking lot at 33 Kilmarnock Street to do the exchange. Avila allegedly said that he would arrive in a gold-colored Toyota.
At about 7 p.m., prosecutors allege, Avila called the undercover officer and told him he was already at the agreed upon location. Avila allegedly claimed that his wife had dropped him off and that he did not bring the drugs with him, because he wanted to be cautious. He then allegedly asked the undercover officer to accompany him to his home in Newton to do the exchange. The undercover officer refused this request, and told Avila that the deal was off.
Avila then told the undercover officer that he would have his wife pick him up and drive him home so that he could get the drugs and bring them back to their current location. Nalls told the court that Drug Control Unit officers and state troopers who were conducting surveillance nearby instead observed Avila enter a gold-colored Toyota occupied with two men, before he drove away.
Just after 8 p.m., Avila pulled into the supermarket parking lot driving the same gold-colored Toyota. The defendant contacted the undercover officer and allegedly told him that he had the “material” and that he was at the arranged location. The undercover officer approached the vehicle, exchanged greetings with the defendant, and waited as the defendant – who was now seated in the passenger’s side of the vehicle – reached down, retrieved a black and gray nylon bag and placed it on his lap. Avila then allegedly told the undercover officer that the heroin was in the bag.
Nalls told the court that Avila then opened the bag and displayed four bundles wrapped in duct tape. He allegedly told the officer that the bundles contained heroin. The undercover officer then punctured one of the bundles with a car key and saw a brown powder and noticed a strong chemical scent. The undercover officer then told Avila that he needed to go and get the money, and walked away from the vehicle. At the same time, police detectives and officers with the Drug Control Unit together with state troopers who had been conducting surveillance nearby, approached Avila’s vehicle and placed him under arrest.
Avila was transported to a district police station, where he was read his Miranda rights and interviewed by police officers. In a post-Miranda statement, Avila allegedly told officers that he was delivering the heroin as a favor for a friend in Mexico.
The drugs that were seized by authorities were found to be in excess of two kilograms, and a preliminary test indicated positive results for heroin, Nalls said.
Avila is represented by attorney Rebecca Kratka.
