WCVB Channel 5 "Sophisticated" drug operation busted in Tewksbury

'Sophisticated' Drug Operation Busted in Tewksbury 2 Face Charges

Officials were able to remove at least $3 million worth of drugs off the street after they were found inside a Tewksbury apartment.

"This is a critical piece of getting these substances valued at several million dollars off the streets," Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said.

Middlesex investigators are charging Luis Perez, 45, of Tewksbury, and Hilda Gandia, 42, of Lawrence, with running a major opioid operation out of a Tewksbury apartment.

Police said they seized about 3 kilos of a substance they believe is fentanyl or heroin or perhaps both.

"They are particularly dangerous because fentanyl, although it looks like heroin, can be several, almost a hundred times more potent," Ryan said.

Attorneys for both defendants denied they were running a drug operation claiming Gandia coming and going with bags was as innocent as her dropping off groceries. They didn't explain away 120-quarter kilo bricks -- at least some of them -- of the dangerous synthetic drug used to cut or mix with heroin.

"Even an experienced user gets that," Ryan said, "They have no way of knowing as they use the substance what a particular amount of it how much of it is heroin and how much of it is fentanyl."