Undercover police drug sweeps netted five arrests earlier this week, including men accused of being dealers.
SPRINGFIELD -- City police made a number of drug busts earlier this week, including arrests in the Bay and North End neighborhoods after officers allegedly observed illegal drug activity.
On Thursday, Sgt. Steven Kent and undercover officers in his command were on gang patrol in the Bay neighborhood near Hennessy Park when they spotted known gang members gathering in the park, according to Sgt. John M. Delaney, a Springfield Police Department spokesman.
Delaney said Kent watched two subjects selling marijuana from a stash that was hidden in the park, where around a dozen or so other gang members had gathered.
Taken into custody were Dayshawn Brimfield, 19, of 41 Acorn St. and Nicholas Clay, 22, of 683 State St., both of whom were charged with pot possession with intent to distribute and school-zone drug violations. A guilty finding on the latter charge could lead to mandatory two-year sentences for both men.
Police said they confiscated 23 bags of marijuana that were stashed inside the neighborhood park.
That same day, undercover narcotics officers working in the North End under the direction of Lt. Al Ayala were conducting surveillance on a stretch of Main Street between Harriet and Waverly streets when they allegedly observed a pair of men selling drugs.
Uniformed officers were called in to arrest an alleged customer, while a "rip team" of officers converged on the two alleged dealers and took them into custody.
As a result, police said that they confiscated an unspecified quantity of crack cocaine packaged for street sales and charged Wilbur Rivera, 40, of 2988 Main St. and Edgardo Lopez, 38, 25 Greenwich St. with cocaine distribution and school-zone drug violations.
Another man, Robert D. Harvey, 46, 31 Reed St., Chicopee, also was arrested, but police did not indicate the charges he's facing in a press release detailing the drug sweeps.
Arraignment information was not immediately available.