Tag: massachusetts

Wealthy Island Community’s Sewage Has a Cocaine Problem

The picturesque island of Nantucket off Cape Cod is producing sewage with high levels of cocaine, possibly revealing the illegal drug of choice in the exclusive upscale New England community.

As part of a program initiated this year, Nantucket, Massachusetts, has been using its sewage “surveillance program” to get a handle on the amount and types of drug use on the island, where population quadruples to 80,000 in the summer months with tourists and seasonal residents.

Conducted at the island’s Surfside wastewater treatment facility, the testing found cocaine levels about 50 percent higher than the national average, according to the town and county’s website.

Labeled the “High Risk Substances Summary for Nantucket Sewer Department,” the testing revealed below-average levels of fentanyl, the powerful opioid that has caused thousands of overdoses in the United States.

The surveillance program tests for a range of substances besides cocaine, including nicotine, methamphetamine, and other prescription and illicit opioids. The idea and technology of testing the sewage was developed during the COVID-19 pandemic to test for the virus.

According to the program’s official description:

While the goal is not to estimate exact numbers of users, the data will help identify concerning patterns, such as sustained increases in certain drug markers, that can guide timely, evidence-based interventions. For example, if a prolonged spike in stimulant use is observed, the Town can coordinate educational outreach, screening efforts, or peer-led recovery support tailored to that substance.

While nicotine use was typical of regional and U.S. averages, other noteworthy findings were the levels of crystal meth and xylazine, an animal tranquilizer that authorities say is often mixed in with other drugs. Both those drugs showed very low levels.

“What’s shocking is that there is a low level of trace items,” Randolph Rice, a legal analyst, told Fox News Digital. “For example, there is very little fentanyl or xylazine…Oftentimes, these substances are added to [drugs] to make them more potent, but they also make them deadly. So what it’s telling us in Nantucket, is they’re getting the pure stuff.”

Back in May, a local news outlet reported what it called the largest cocaine bust in the island’s history when more than five pounds of the drug were seized during the arrest of a suspect from the Dominican Republic who has a green card allowing him to live legally in the United States.

One activity that could distort drug use trends determined from sewage is the pressure of law enforcement.

David Katz, a former DEA special agent, told Fox News Digital that cocaine concentrations could also come from a dealer flushing a large stash to avoid being busted during a raid.

“We used to shut the water off before we did search warrants because of that same thing,” he said.

The other cause, he said, would be the toilet flushes from cocaine users as the drug leaves their system.

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Massachusetts State Police spent $217,000 on luxury hotel stays, international flights, and more

Mass State Police shelled out more than $200,000 on stays at 4- and 5-star hotels from Aruba to Florida, along with international flights and other expenses during the last fiscal year.

The Herald is sifting through state agencies’ taxpayer-funded credit card expenditures — finding that Mass State Police racked up $217,957 in procurement card (P-card) expenses in fiscal year 2025.

That includes stays at Aruba’s Manchebo Beach Resort & Spa for a total of $6,050, and Aruba’s Bucuti & Tara Beach Resort for a total of $4,344. MSP also had a $1,320 bill for a rental car in Aruba.

Some of the other biggest hotel bills from the last year were at Champlin’s Hotel, Marina & Resort in Rhode Island for a total of $9,179; Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile for a total of $8,475; and Harborside Inn on Martha’s Vineyard for a total of $5,062.

Mass State Police, which has been emphasizing the importance of transparency as the embattled agency tries to restore trust following a string of scandals, will not provide details on these expenditures and the purpose for these pricey trips.

“We do not have a comment to provide on these State Police operational matters,” a Mass State Police spokesperson said in a statement.

Recently, the Herald shed light on the P-card bills for Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s office and Suffolk County Sheriff Steven Tompkins, who was indicted last week on federal charges.

Some of the MSP charges are related to the governor’s executive protection, but not all of them.

“The Massachusetts State Police takes seriously our solemn obligation to keep elected officials safe during their tenures in office,” the MSP spokesperson said. “Constitutional Officers in Massachusetts and across the country have long had Executive Protection that travels with them.

“This is essential for ensuring the safety and security of our state’s top leaders, while also ensuring the safety of the general public,” the spokesperson added. “This security is all the more important in this moment when political violence is on the rise, with several recent and tragic attacks on elected officials. Due to operational concerns, we do not comment on resource allocations of protective details.”

The timing of Gov. Maura Healey’s office purchasing hotel stays in Washington, D.C. and elsewhere line up with some of MSP’s fancy hotel expenditures.

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Conservative Moms Org Labeled ‘Hate Group’ in Police Training

A police training entity in Massachusetts asserted that Moms for Liberty, a nationwide conservative grassroots parental rights coalition, is a “hate group.”

The designation was made by the Massachusetts Municipal Police Training Committee, an entity which trains over 20,000 officers across Massachusetts.

A Friday report from The Daily Wire, which first covered the story, said that Moms for Liberty was listed alongside other “Hate Groups.”

Some of those other groups included Antifa and various Neo-Nazis.

The slides claimed that Moms for Liberty is an “anti-government extremist” entity.

The training materials also said that Moms for Liberty opposes “books that reference race and gender identity.”

The group has indeed mobilized conservative parents nationwide to raise the alarm over heavily sexualized books, as well as those with leftist ideological themes.

The training accused Moms for Liberty of purportedly using “parents’ rights as a vehicle to attack public education and make schools less welcoming for minority and LGBTQ students.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center calls Moms for Liberty an “anti-government extremist,” a reality likewise cited by the training materials.

“Moms for Liberty is here to show up at school board meetings, speak out against curriculum, failing schools, inappropriate books maybe in your public school library,” Tina Descovich, co-founder of Moms for Liberty, reacted to the designation of her group.

“Antifa is burning down whole cities and parts of cities and rioting in the streets,” she said.

“These two are not equivalent.”

Moms for Liberty secured copies of the training documents through a freedom of information request of the Massachusetts Municipal Police Training Committee.

“We have to ask what is going on here in Massachusetts with these trainings to police officers,” Descovich said.

“We are not conducting ourselves in a way that police ever need to be concerned about the way we act,” she continued.

“As a matter of fact, our chapter chair there in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, who is the one that brought all this to my attention, said she has local members of their police force come up to her all the time.”

“Please keep going. We can’t talk about it publicly, but I have kids. I appreciate you guys speaking out. So thank you for your courage and your bravery,” the officers reportedly say.

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Another powerful Democrat nabbed by U.S. Attorney Leah Foley

U.S. Attorney Leah Foley has become the Massachusetts Democratic Party’s worst nightmare.

Foley nabbed yet another powerful Democratic elected official on Friday, indicting longtime Suffolk County Sheriff Steven Tompkins for extorting a Boston cannabis company executive.

Tompkins, who has loomed large on the Boston political scene, allegedly demanded a $50,000 “pre-equity interest” in the cannabis company right before it went public with an IPO, according to Foley’s office.

“His alleged actions are an affront to taxpayers who elected him to his position, and the many dedicated and honest public servants at the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department,” Foley said in a statement.

Tompkins is the most prominent Democrat in a string of indictments that Foley has secured this year, including Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson on a bribery charge and state Rep. Chris Flanagan on wire fraud.

Anderson eventually resigned in disgrace and is awaiting sentencing. Flanagan is still holding on to his seat in the Legislature.

Foley has single-handedly done more damage to the state Democratic Party than the feeble Massachusetts Republican Party.

She has been a breath of fresh air in this politically corrupt state, doing the job because few have the guts to take on the powerful Democratic establishment.

“Public corruption remains a top priority for my administration and we will continue to investigate and prosecute anyone who uses their position of trust and power for their own gain,” Foley said.

Attorney General Andrea Campbell has been a no-show when it comes to prosecuting political corruption, choosing instead to issue frivolous lawsuits against President Donald Trump.

The Tompkins case exposes the continued culture of corruption in Massachusetts politics. It also exposes the corrupt cannabis industry, where a number of politicians have tried to cash in on the lucrative business.

Tompkins’ predecessor in the Sheriff’s office, Andrea Cabral, left to become a top executive for a Boston area cannabis company, Ascend Cannabis, which looms as a likely player in the Tompkins case.

The indictment charges that Tompkins tried to bully a cannabis executive to give him the early $50,000 equity stake in exchange for cooperating in a program the Suffolk Sheriff’s office was participating in with the company. The company was hiring ex-cons from jail to work for the cannabis firm.

The indictment never names the cannabis company or executive, but according to a 2018 story in the Boston Globe, Cabral’s company “plans to work directly with the Suffolk County Sheriff to hire people recently released from jail as workers at its facilities.”

Cabral and Tompkins were also college classmates and close friends, according to the story.

Tompkins “is downright enthusiastic about the partnership,” the fawning Globe story went on to say.

“We’re a nation of second chances, or at least that’s what they used to tell us,” Tompkins was quoted as saying. “If someone who hasn’t had good opportunities in life can catch on and make a decent living? It’s awesome. There’s no squeamishness on my part at all.”

Now we know just why Tompkins wasn’t so “squeamish.” He was allegedly planning to make a pile of cash on the deal as well.

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FBI Arrests Sanctuary County Sheriff in Massachusetts After Cannabis Retailer Extortion Investigation

The FBI announced the arrest of a sheriff from Suffolk County, Massachusetts, on charges of extortion. The arrest of the immigration sanctuary county sheriff follows an investigation into allegations that he extorted $50,000 from a Boston-based cannabis company.

FBI agents arrested Sheriff Steven W. Tompkins on Friday in the Southern District of Florida, according to a statement released by the U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts. He will be transported to Boston after an appearance in the Florida federal court.

Tompkins is charged by indictment for two counts of Extortion under Color of Official Right. He allegedly extorted $50,000 from the owner of a national cannabis retailer based in Boston.

“Mr. Tompkins is a sitting Sheriff, responsible for over 1,000 employees, who was elected by the good people of Suffolk County,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Ted E. Docks said in a written statement. “Today, he is alleged to have extorted an executive from a cannabis company, using his official position as Sheriff to benefit himself.”

Elected officials, particularly those in law enforcement, are expected to be ethical, honest and law abiding – not self-serving,” Docks said. “His alleged actions are an affront to the voters and taxpayers who elected him to his position, and the many dedicated and honest public servants at the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department. The people of Suffolk County deserve better.”

Court records reveal that the cannabis company sought to open a retail cannabis dispensary in Boston. Following the application with the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission, Sheriff Tompkins allegedly pressured one of the owners to obtain stock in the venture. After increasing pressure from the sheriff, he wired a $50,000 payment for shares in the company.

The stock eventually decreased in value to the point that the sheriff allegedly lost money in his investment and demanded a refund of the $50,000. The individual refunded the money in smaller payments, labeling them as “loan repayments” to disguise the nature of the payments, prosecutors stated.

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Before The Supposed Climate Change Crisis Could Ruin John Kerry’s Posh Neighborhood – Drug Addicts Did It Instead

Former Secretary of State and climate change alarmist John Kerry’s high-class neighborhood has reportedly been overrun with drug users, who ironically did more damage to the area than his supposed extreme weather events.

Kerry’s been preaching about climate-change consequences for decades. Yet before any of the hypothetical chaos had a chance to affect him, liberal governance brought another plague to his doorstep: Addiction.

Back in 2007, Kerry spoke with the Council on Foreign Relations about how climate change is “a national security issue.”

The former senator was introduced as having spoken out “on the topic of climate change for some 20 years now and has promoted hi-tech green solutions to stabilizing climate change and called attention to the economic risks of failing to address climate change. He’s also [an] advocate for the adoption of innovative and strategic national energy policy.”

Kerry’s 2009 claim in a Huffington Post op-ed that the Arctic would be “ice free by the summer of 2013” was examined by PolitiFact and judged to be “mostly false” at the time.

“Scientists project that the Arctic will be ice-free in the summer of 2013. Not in 2050, but four years from now,” Kerry wrote. “Make no mistake: catastrophic climate change represents a threat to human security, global stability, and — yes — even to American national security.”

In 2017, when Kerry paid $11.75 million for property on the water in Martha’s Vineyard, he didn’t seem too concerned about rising sea levels or climate catastrophes.

Fast forward to today, and an actual crisis is playing out in Beacon Hill, where Kerry also owns property, according to Fox News.

Local residents are complaining that city leaders aren’t doing enough to contain open drug use in the streets, creating a chaotic situation.

“Prior to this year, I’ve never seen the Boston Common, Cambridge Street or the Esplanade get this overrun with drug paraphernalia or folks in crisis,” resident Katherine Kennedy said. “As a mother of two small children, this is very scary.”

Boston’s Democratic mayor hasn’t helped the situation, either.

Back in 2022, Mayor Michelle Wu launched a needle exchange program, which also included distributing free pipes for smoking crack or meth.

Wu defended the program, claiming it prevents addicts from contracting diseases that could spread into the general populace, WHDH in Boston reported.

So, using liberal logic, we should spend billions — even trillions — of dollars on climate-change funding with no questions asked, despite its ever-changing benchmark. But when it comes to a drug epidemic, we should feed the fire by giving out free paraphernalia?

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Massachusetts Governor Criticizes Texas Redistricting – From a State With ZERO Republican Representation

Democrat Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey was asked about the effort to redraw congressional districts in Texas and criticized the move, suggesting that efforts by Democrats to do more gerrymandering in response is justified.

The irony of this is that despite the fact that about a third of the state of Massachusetts voted for Trump, there is ZERO Republican representation there.

This fact was apparently lost on Healey.

Hot Air reported:

Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey now has Republicans quaking in their boots.

In response to the Texas legislature’s move to redistrict its state to create more Republican districts, Healey is making a brave stand and threatening revenge.

She, too, will redistrict the state in retaliation.

It is a frightening prospect, I know. In a state known for its fairness to Republicans, a change in attitude could have serious repercussions.

Currently, the state has nine Congressional Districts and nine Democrats representing them. Should a less favorable map be created, the state will have nine Congressional Districts and nine Democrats representing them.

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Massachusetts Official Labels ‘Moms For Liberty’ as Neo-Nazis in Police Course on ‘Hate Crimes’

In Massachusetts, a state trooper involved in a hate crimes unit has co-authored a controversial police training course. This course labels the parental rights group, Moms for Liberty, as a “hate group” alongside Antifa and white supremacist organizations. The training is part of a broader initiative by the Massachusetts Municipal Police Training Committee, which educates over 20,000 officers statewide.

Trooper Emily Todisco, who works with the Hate Crimes Awareness and Response Team (HART), is at the center of this debate. Appointed by Democratic Governor Maura Healey, Todisco’s role involves enhancing data collection and information-sharing on hate crimes. Her participation in developing this training has sparked a backlash from conservatives who see it as an attack on pro-family values.

Charlie Misseijer, from Moms for Liberty, expressed concern over the implications of this training. He argues that comparing their organization to neo-Nazis puts families at risk. Misseijer emphasizes the danger of law enforcement materials that construct what he calls a “wholly contrived narrative.”

Attempts to get a response from the police training committee were unsuccessful. Both Todisco and her co-author, Curriculum Specialist Hannah Gianfriddo, were unavailable for comment. This silence has only fueled the controversy surrounding the training’s content and intent.

The presentation at the heart of the issue is titled “Freedom and Hate: Speech, Crimes & Groups.” It aims to inform law enforcement about local “hate groups” and includes Moms for Liberty in its list. The training highlights the group’s efforts to challenge books on race and gender identity and to promote conservative candidates.

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is cited as a source for defining hate groups in the training. Critics argue the SPLC has long lost its credibility by targeting groups that don’t align with its leftist agenda. This inclusion has intensified the debate over the course’s objectivity and fairness.

The training underlines that “hate speech” is legally protected in the United States. Despite no violence being attributed to Moms for Liberty supporters, the course warns of their “active” presence. It advises police to recognize the signs of these groups to better prepare for potential incidents.

The course suggests that understanding these groups’ symbols and missions is crucial for law enforcement. This knowledge is seen as vital for identifying propaganda and harmful rhetoric. Such preparation, the training argues, enables effective community policing.

Inquiries to Governor Healey’s office for a statement went unanswered. The governor’s involvement in appointing Todisco has brought political dimensions to the controversy. The lack of response adds to the frustration of those seeking accountability.

The Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent media outlet, initially reported on this issue. They emphasize that their content is available for widespread distribution. The goal is to ensure transparency and broaden the audience for important stories like this one.

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Feds take down Chinese-operated grow home network in Massachusetts, Maine

An alleged network of interconnected grow houses in Massachusetts and Maine that Chinese nationals operated to cultivate and distribute marijuana is no more after authorities arrested the men behind the “sprawling criminal enterprise.”

Seven Chinese nationals have been indicted in connection with what the feds describe as a “multi-million-dollar conspiracy to cultivate and distribute marijuana across the Northeast.”

The group is accused of smuggling other Chinese nationals into the U.S. to work in the grow homes, found inside single-family properties in Massachusetts and Maine. The workers didn’t have access to their passports until they repaid their smuggling debts, according to a release from the office of Massachusetts US Attorney Leah Foley.

Authorities arrested six of the defendants Tuesday morning, while the seventh, Yanrong Zhu, 47, of Greenfield, Mass. and Brooklyn, N.Y., remains a fugitive.

The group allegedly used a Braintree home as the “base” for the enterprise to cultivate and distribute kilogram-sized quantities of marijuana in bulk. The network of interconnected grow houses also included properties in Melrose and Greenfield, among other locations in the Bay State, Maine and elsewhere, according to authorities.

“This case pulls back the curtain on a sprawling criminal enterprise that exploited our immigration system and our communities for personal gain,” Foley said in a statement. “These defendants allegedly turned quiet homes across the Northeast into hubs for a criminal enterprise – building a multi-million-dollar black-market operation off the backs of an illegal workforce and using our neighborhoods as cover.”

“That ends today,” she added.

Grow house operators allegedly communicated with one another through a list of marijuana cultivators and distributors from or with ties to China in the region, dubbed the “East Coast Contact List.”

Charging documents allege that the network began operating in or around January 2020.

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Massachusetts Woman Records Unidentified Object Falling From the Sky

This week, many strange things have been reported in the skies throughout the United States, and the trend continues.

A woman in Massachusetts recorded an unidentified object falling from the sky near her home.

Pembroke, Massachusetts, resident Colleen McCormack told Boston 25 News that on Wednesday night, as she was sitting in her hot tub, she noticed an object falling from the sky.

McCormack quickly took out her phone and was able to record the object.

She stated, “It looked like it was on fire or something and it was just coming down really fast.”

Per Boston 25 News:

A woman captured a video of an unidentified object falling from the sky in Pembroke Wednesday night.

Colleen McCormack said she was sitting by her hot tub around 9 p.m. when she saw a strangely shaped object in the air.

“I pull out my phone and I zoomed in and it was right about there,” McCormack explained.

She recorded the object headed straight down in an eight-second video.

The FAA said they did not get any reports of debris in the area and was not able to comment on the video, saying they don’t comment on any third-party videos.

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