Prosecutor said all four people in the apartment guilty of trafficking cocaine
SPRINGFIELD – A federal postal inspector donned a mail carrier’s garb on Nov. 14, 2009, and delivered a box to 75 McKnight St.
Among items in the box from Puerto Rico was a round container of Johnson’s Baby Wipes. In the container was nearly 500 grams of cocaine, according to prosecutors.
The cocaine trafficking trial of four people who were in the house that day will continue today before Hampden Superior Court Judge John A. Agostini.
Assistant District Attorney Neil Desroches told jurors they should convict all four of trafficking cocaine in the amount of over 200 grams, a crime with a minimum mandatory sentence of 15 years. He said they should be convicted as participants in a joint venture.
Defense lawyers each told jurors they would hear no clear evidence connecting their clients to the crime.
On trial are Angel Pagan, 35, Jose Cosme, 40, Jose Rodriguez, 30, and Maria Cosme, 34.
U.S. Postal Inspector Byron Dailey said the cocaine was discovered after a drug-sniffing dog identified a package officials deemed suspicious.
He said when he went to deliver the package, addressed to Jose Rodriguez at 75 McKnight St., it was accepted by Maria Cosme.
Desroches said police had a search warrant to enter the apartment if delivery of the package was accepted.
After Dailey left a task force of police waited 15 minutes and went in, ultimately discovering the package was opened and the baby wipes container with the cocaine inside was hidden in the basement.
John F. Kavanaugh Jr., lawyer for Maria Cosme, said the case is “really about who lived here” and “who’s responsible for this heinous crime.” He said his client was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Jared Olanoff, lawyer for Rodriguez, said his client did not live at 75 McKnight St. and was an overnight guest the night before Nov. 14. He said Rodriguez, who was asleep when the package was delivered, had no idea what was going on and people used his name as “the straw man” to mail the package from Puerto Rico.
William J. Walsh, Pagan’s lawyer, and Edward C. Bryant Jr., Jose Cosme’s lawyer, said there is no evidence their clients are linked to the crime of having or trying to distribute the drugs.