2 arrested in city prescription drug bust

NASHUA – Police arrested two city residents in connection to the seizure of more than 300,000 prescription pills. The bust may turn out to be the largest ever made in New England, according to detectives.

The drugs, which are mostly anti-anxiety and pain medications, are believed to be only a portion of the drugs stolen from a Massachusetts warehouse about three years ago. Drugs worth more than $2 million were taken during that burglary, which is still under investigation, police said.

“We’ve never seen anything to this magnitude in a recovery, especially in prescription drugs,” Nashua police Capt. Scott Howe said at a press conference Friday afternoon.

Nashua police Detective Lt. Scott Hammond said the bust is clearly the largest ever made in Nashua and suspects it is the largest seizure of prescription drugs in the state’s history and perhaps the largest ever made in New England.

“You don’t get half a million in one shot,” he said.

Most seizures involve loose pills stored in large Ziploc bags, some of which were involved in Nashua’s bust. It is very rare to find so many pills and still in their original bottles, which made up the bulk of the Nashua seizure.

Even a pharmacy burglary would not yield a criminal so many pills because pharmacies do not keep so much medication on hand, Hammond said.

Police were called to 9 Burritt St. on Tuesday, Oct. 27, following the report of a man having a heart attack. Police responded and found that Andreas Antoniou, 38, had died in the second-floor bedroom of the duplex. First responders noticed evidence of drug use in the house and a death investigation led by Nashua detectives eventually discovered the cache of pills, Howe said.

A week later, on Nov. 3, police arrested Tam Mitchell, 32, the owner of the 9 Burritt St. house, and charged him with possession of a controlled drug with intent to sell, second offense, and falsifying physical evidence. Police also arrested Mitchell’s girlfriend, Cora White, 23, who also lives at 9 Burritt St., and charged her with providing false information to police.

Howe said police initiated the drug investigation because it appeared evidence had been moved from the area where Antoniou died. He declined to say exactly what those indications are. After serving a search warrant and conducting interviews, detectives found the pills in house’s attic. Mitchell is accused of moving some of them there before first responders arrived.

Howe said police believe Mitchell and Antoniou, another resident of 9 Burritt St., were partners, and that Antoniou was also in possession of the drugs before he died. Howe said his death is not suspicious and toxicology reports will determine whether drugs played a role in his death.

He said it’s possible more charges will be brought against Mitchell and that more arrests will be made in this case. Police estimate the pills seized in Nashua have a street value of about $500,000, Howe said.

The drugs Nashua police seized are believed to be about one-third of what was taken from a Massachusetts warehouse in November 2006. After information about the seizure was issued to local law enforcement agencies, police in Mansfield, Mass., quickly contacted Nashua detectives and, using lot numbers, connected the Nashua pills to the old burglary, Howe said.

Police don’t believe Mitchell was involved in the burglary or that he had sold much of his stash of pills before his arrest. Police don’t know at this time where the rest of the pills stolen in the burglary are. Police from Mansfield, Londonderry, the FBI and Massachusetts State Police are investigating that burglary.

Mansfield police Detective Michael Ellsworth has been investigating that burglary for three years and believes police are close to cracking the case.

The burglary happened the weekend of Nov. 4, 2006, when a group of people broke into a roughly 400,000-square-foot warehouse owned by AmerisourceBergen Corp. Ellsworth said the building was a “pharmacy’s pharmacy” and stored everything from prescription medication to Band-Aids.

He declined to specify how the group got into the warehouse or how they transported the drugs. He did say though that the group was able to disable the building’s alarm system and that they made off with “a couple million” pills and pharmacy supplies worth around $2.5 million.

“They know what they’re doing and they plan their work and they work their plan,” Ellsworth said.

Luckily they did not gain access to a vault inside the warehouse that held stronger prescription drugs.

The vast majority of the pills seized by Nashua police are schedule IV drugs, Howe said, meaning they have a low potential for abuse of addiction.

That does not mean they are safe, though. Hammond said abuse of prescription drugs is a growing problem, particularly among teens and kids.

“I think it’s a problem everywhere,” he said. “We’re running into it more and more across the country.”

Assistant County Attorney Roger Chadwick said it is important not to dismiss the seizure because it involved prescription pills as opposed to drugs like cocaine or heroin. He said kids often experiment with pills they find in the medicine cabinet at home and then look to buy more of what they like on the street.

“It’s an extensive problem with juveniles,” Chadwick said. “It’s a very serious problem. Our office is looking forward to working with Nashua police in furthering the prosecution.”

Since the warehouse burglary three years ago, Mansfield police have teamed with FBI agents, Massachusetts State Police troopers and officers from Londonderry and Derry. Now Nashua has been rolled into the investigation, Ellsworth said. He would not explain the connection to Londonderry and Derry.

Ellsworth said the Nashua bust may not be a big break that investigators need, but information gleaned by Nashua detectives certainly won’t hurt their efforts.

“We have always had and continue to have suspects who were involved in the crime,” he said. “We were eventually getting there. It was just a matter of where and when.”

Mitchell is facing up to seven years in prison plus fines for the falsifying physical evidence charge and up to 15 years in prison plus fines for the possession charge. He was released on $5,000 cash or surety bail and $10,000 personal recognizance bail pending an arraignment at Nashua District Court. White’s charge is a misdemeanor, police said.

Joseph G. Cote can be reached at 594-6415 or jcote@nasuatelegraph.com.