Cocaine

Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington admitted he made a “huge mistake’’ when he used cocaine and failed a Major League Baseball drug test last season. In his first public acknowledgment, Washington apologized yesterday for his behavior, eight months after he told team president Nolan Ryan , who turned down the manager’s offer to resign. “It almost caused me to lose everything I have worked for all of my life,’’ Washington said. “I am not here to make excuses.

A Roslindale man was arraigned in Roxbury District Court this week after police said they found more than 10 kilograms of cocaine stuffed into a hidden compartment of the van he was driving. Elvyn Rafael Garcia, 31, was ordered held on $30,000 bail for charges of trafficking in more than 200 grams of cocaine, violating the state's drug laws in a school zone, and numerous civil motor vehicle infractions, the Suffolk District Attorney's office said. Judge David Weingarten also ordered Garcia to surrender his US passport if he has one. On Monday...

A man and a woman pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of trafficking in cocaine after they allegedly accepted Express Mail envelopes containing kilo-sized packages of the white powder, said Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley's office. Robert Conley, 46, and Myisha Wilkerson, 29, both of Dorchester, were arraigned in Dorchester Municipal Court on charges of trafficking in more than 200 grams of cocaine and conspiracy to violate the state's drug laws, prosecutors said. Conley is additionally being charged with unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition for the unregistered .38-caliber...

A man and a woman pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of trafficking in cocaine after they allegedly accepted Express Mail envelopes containing kilo-sized packages of the white powder, said Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley's office. Robert Conley, 46, and Myisha Wilkerson, 29, both of Dorchester, were arraigned in Dorchester Municipal Court on charges of trafficking in more than 200 grams of cocaine and conspiracy to violate the state's drug laws, prosecutors said. Conley is additionally being charged with unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition for the unregistered .38-caliber...

Ecuador's foreign minister says police in Italy found nearly 90 pounds (40 kilos) of cocaine in diplomatic mail sent to the Mediterranean country and two suspects have been arrested. Ricardo Patino said Thursday that the Italians asked permission last month before opening eight crates and found the drugs. He says the crates had been inspected by police dogs before leaving Ecuador, but had traveled to Italy through a third country he didn't identify. Patino says one of those arrested is Cristian Loor, an Ecuadorean who obtained foreign service permission to use its diplomatic mail...

A Mattapan man is facing weapon and drug charges after police raided an apartment in the neighborhood on Thursday and recovered several firearms and crack cocaine, among other items, authorities said. Sirrocko Landrum, 22, struggled with city police officers and federal agents before being taken into custody at the Deering Road apartment, according to a statement from Boston police. He pleaded not guilty in Dorchester District Court to several charges and was ordered held on $30,000 cash bail, authorities said.

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. -- Mayor John M. Fabrizi admitted yesterday he had abused cocaine while in office and said he wanted to apologize "to all the people of the city" but had no plans to resign. The admission followed the inadvertent release of an FBI document in which an alleged drug dealer asserted that an associate had a videotape of the mayor using cocaine. In a tearful speech to about 200 city employees and residents in City Council chambers yesterday, Fabrizi said he had not used drugs in 18 months and had sought help for a drug addiction that he had hoped to handle privately.

A Massachusetts man accused of dealing cocaine in Chittenden County has been sentenced to a year in prison after pleading guilty to the charges. Federal prosecutors said Zachary Roberts, 29, of Cambridge, was sentenced Monday. Court records said Roberts sold cocaine to an informant in February 2010. He also was stopped on Interstate 89 when police say they found nearly half a kilogram of cocaine hidden in the vehicle.

FORT MYERS, Fla. - Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd's new tell-all book, "They Call Me Oil Can: My Life in Baseball," which hits bookstores in June, should be a blockbuster if the stories are similar to what the former Red Sox pitcher told WBZ's Jon Miller yesterday at JetBlue Park. Boyd, who spent eight of his 10 major league seasons with the Red Sox, admitted he was under the influence of cocaine two-thirds of the time he was on the mound. "Oh yeah, at every ballpark," he said. "There wasn't one ballpark that I probably didn't stay up all night, until four or five in the morning, and the same thing is...

By Justin A. Rice, Town Correspondent Three me arrested yesterday for drug trafficking after 11 kilos of cocaine were seized from their possession are slated to be arraigned in Peabody District Court this morning, according to Essex County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett's spokesman, Steve O'Connell.  The three suspects (Jason Grilli, 38, of Laval, Quebec; Valentine Torres, 33, of  New Mexico; and Gerardo Rodriguez Florez, 27, of...

A Roslindale man was arraigned in Roxbury District Court this week after police said they found more than 10 kilograms of cocaine in a hidden compartment of the van he was driving. Elvyn Rafael Garcia, 31, was ordered held on $30,000 bail. On Monday morning, a Boston police officer stopped Garcia on Seaver Street, because the minivan he was driving had a broken brake light. Garcia became anxious when asked if there was anything in the minivan, police said. An investigation aided by a K9 unit found the cocaine, prosecutors said.

Security forces seized 3.3 tons of cocaine during an anti-drug operation at one of Venezuela's main seaports Thursday, a top security official said. Justice Minister Tareck El Aissami said National Guard troops found the cocaine inside 1,680 boxes containing ceramic mix at La Guaira port. The cocaine was destined for Mexico, he said. El Aissami told state television that two Venezuelans and a Mexican were arrested. Venezuela has become one of South America's most important routes for smuggling drugs to the United States and Europe due to its proximity to Colombia, where...

A Massachusetts man accused of dealing cocaine in Chittenden County has been sentenced to a year in prison after pleading guilty to the charges. Federal prosecutors said Zachary Roberts, 29, of Cambridge, was sentenced Monday. Court records said Roberts sold cocaine to an informant in February 2010. He also was stopped on Interstate 89 when police say they found nearly half a kilogram of cocaine hidden in the vehicle.

Authorities in the Dominican Republic say they have seized 1.5 tons (1.36 metric tons) of cocaine and detained three Venezuelans allegedly transporting the drugs in a speedboat. National Drug Control Agency chief Rolando Rosado Mateo says the suspects were captured at dawn Sunday while they were trying to unload the drugs in the southern beach town of Juan Dolio. He says agents found bales of white power in the 40-foot (12-meter) speedboat. Rosada says authorities believe Dominican accomplices planned to meet the Venezuelans and then smuggle the cocaine to the United...

Whitney Houston was a chronic cocaine user who had the drug in her system when she drowned in a hotel bathtub, coroner's officials said Thursday after releasing autopsy findings that also noted heart disease contributed to her death. The disclosure ended weeks of speculation about what killed the Grammy-winning singer on Feb. 11 on the eve of the Grammy Awards. Houston was found submerged in the bathtub of her room at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, and her death was ruled accidental.

Three men were arrested in Barnstable on cocaine-related charges Friday, after police pulled over a vehicle and saw one man dumping a bag of white powder on the vehicle floor, according to Barnstable police. Police officers stopped the three men on Bearses Way in Barnstable at about 10:30 p.m., after the driver failed to stay within the marked boundaries on the road, according to a statement by police. Officers reported seeing Preston J. Hendricks, 24, of Mashpee crushing up a plastic bag with white powder before emptying it...

NEW YORK — US prosecutors in a series of court cases say they are beginning to unravel the latest innovation in drug smuggling: South American gangs that are buying old jets and other planes, filling them with cocaine, and flying them more than 3,000 miles across the ocean to Africa. At least three gangs have struck deals to fly drugs to West Africa and from there to Europe, according to US indictments. “The sky’s the limit,’’ one Sierra Leone trafficker boasted to a Drug Enforcement Administration informant, according to court documents.

A Springfield man has been sentenced to 10 years in jail for distributing cocaine. Jorge Feliciano was sentenced Friday by a U.S. District Judge in New Haven. Court documents say Feliciano transported 15 kilograms of cocaine from Massachusetts into Connecticut. In a separate case Friday, Tomas Ocasio of Hartford was sentenced to 3 years and five months in prison for being involved with dealing heroin. Officials say Ocasio tested the quality of heroin distributed by an organization operating out of a southern Hartford apartment.

Three men were arrested on cocaine-related charges after police pulled over a vehicle on Bearses Way in Barnstable at about 10:30 p.m. Friday and saw a man dumping a bag of white powder on the vehicle's floor, according to Barnstable police. The white powder tested positive for cocaine, police said. The driver, Mario D. Gatto, 29, of Marson Mills, was charged with possession of cocaine, conspiracy to violate narcotics laws, and failure to stay within marked lanes. The passengers, Preston J. Hendricks, 24, and Ryan K. Santos, 41, both of Mashpee, were each charged with possession of cocaine and...

Cocaine seizures have dropped precipitously in Mexico in recent years, and a top U.N. drug-control official said Tuesday the trade appeared to be moving to Central America because of law enforcement pressure and infighting among cartels. Mexican officials seized 53 tons of cocaine in 2007 and only 10 tons last year, according to a report Tuesday from the International Narcotics Control Board, which monitors global drug-control agreements. Antonio Mazzitelli, representative in Mexico of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, said traffickers are diverting their cocaine operations...