# Police nab 3 in major drug bust



## DANIPD (Jun 30, 2003)

Police nab 3 in major drug bust







Newburyport police officer Nora Duggan blocks the entrance to the Airpark Industrial Center off Graf Road as state and federal enforcement agents conduct an investigation. Photo by Bryan Eaton/Newburyport Daily News.

http://www.ecnnews.com/cgi-bin/O5/ntstory.pl?-sec-News+fn-nbust-20060527-+page_1
By Katie Farrell 
_Staff writer _

NEWBURYPORT - The FBI swooped into a Graf Road storage unit yesterday, seizing between 1,500 and 1,800 pounds of marijuana and an undisclosed amount of cash in an investigation that dates at least a year and stretches across several states. A ton of marijuana is 2,000 pounds.

Three men were arrested and remain in the custody of the U.S. Marshal Service. They were arraigned at the Moakley Federal Courthouse in Boston yesterday afternoon. Two brothers - Gerard and Jeffrey Morello - and Scott Goodreau were charged with possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, said U.S. Attorney's Office spokesperson Christina Sterling.

Gerard Morello, 47, of Epping, NH, owns Epping Motors, according to court documents filed in U.S. District Court. The home addresses of the men were not available yesterday.

FBI agents had been investigating a large-scale marijuana distribution network for more than a year. The network has ties between Kentucky, New Hampshire, Arizona and California.

With the help of a major Kentucky drug dealer who was providing information to the FBI, a trail of distributors and trucking companies were identified. Among the distribution points the FBI discovered was Northeast Liquidators, on Graf Road.

The FBI received a tip that at least some of the drugs were being shipped using commercial trucking companies in West Ridge Furniture boxes. The FBI seized cargo manifests from trucking companies that stated the contents to be "pallets of K-Mart close-out merchandise."

The FBI was informed by a trucking company on Monday that a shipment was headed to Newburyport. The truck arrived in Newburyport Thursday.

Using narcotics dogs, aerial and vehicle surveillance, Boston FBI agents spent 24 hours monitoring the building at 18 Graf Road to keep track of the shipment and observe people entering and leaving the storage unit.

Yesterday, the FBI swooped in as the three men were preparing to load some of the drugs into a truck.

The three men were arraigned yesterday and will be back in court Wednesday morning. If convicted, they could face between 5 and 40 years in prison and a $2 million fine.

Special Agent Gail Marcinkiewicz, the public affairs coordinator for the FBI headquarters in Boston, said little information could be immediately released about the incident, citing the on-going investigation.

Newburyport Police blocked on the entrance way to the park for most of the afternoon and evening Friday, prohibiting access to the buildings surrounding the investigation.


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