POLICE: COCAINE RING BUSTED
By Gregory J. Lamoureux
ST. ALBANS: An Early Thursday Morning raid last week caught three cocaine dealers, including one that was wanted by Burlington Police for a felony assault charge. This is excellent news for the community as it has been affected by addiction in a similar way to most of the country. Many people are asking “is drug addiction a disease” which can be answered by researching online.
All three defendants claim to reside in Philidelphia, according to Court records.
Around 6 am on Thursday, police from St. Albans Police Department, Franklin County Sheriff’s Department, and State Police raided the three-story home located at 42 Federal Street in St. Albans City, according to court records. The home is located behind Boston Tailoring & Cleaners on Federal Street.
Dahmir Simmons, 24, Jennifer Y Allen, 27, and Annette Edwards, 27, were all arrested during the raid and were later arraigned in Criminal Court.
Simmons was wanted by the Burlington Police Department for allegedly assaulting his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend in earlier in the week.
According to police documents, Simmons pointed a pistol at the victim before striking him across the face with the gun.
During their arraignments, the three took advantage of the state’s public defender.
In arguing for the defendants, Mandy Lewis said that there was not enough information in the court records that any of the three defendants knew that the cocaine was there and that the cocaine that was found was located hidden from sight.
Lewis also argued that because there were only 14 grams of cocaine found near any one of the defendants, that the three defendants should not be charged with a felony count of possession, a charge that requires one ounce (about 28 grams) of cocaine.
“There were controlled buys that were made at the residence,” Assistant State’s Attorney John Lavoie said, “they were able to gain access to the residence by just knocking on the door.”
Lavoie went on to say that the property was known in the community and by law enforcement officers to be a “drug house” that was being used to distribute narcotics.
“The cocaine found around the residence does total about 33 grams,” Lavoie said.
According to court records, the Vermont Drug Task Force began monitoring the property in August.
Police used a criminal informant to make several controlled purchases of cocaine from the three defendants, according to court records. That informant was traded “consideration” in another pending criminal case, according to a police affidavit.
Police indicated in court records that their informant “ had purchased crack cocaine from the target residence in the past.”
On August 30th the informant was issued $50 by the police to make a purchase at the home.
According to court records, that money was marked by the task force to trace the currency.
$40 of that money was used to purchase 1/2 of one ounce of cocaine, according to records.
Annette Edward’s attorney argued that she was only visiting for the evening when the raid took place and that she had no knowledge of the drugs or any drug activity in the home.
Police said that Edwards was found on the third floor in a bedroom at the time of the raid. Also located in that room was 29 individually wrapped bags of heroin on top of a bookshelf.
Judge Gregory Rainville ultimately determined that there was enough evidence to charge Edwards with the single Felony count of Possessing Cocaine, more than one ounce.
Edwards was released into the custody of her father, Ben Edwards, who resides on South Main Street in St. Albans. Her conditions include a 24-hour curfew, and not possessing any controlled substances without a valid prescription.
Edward’s cousin, Jennifer Allen was also charged with just one count of possessing a felony amount of cocaine.
Judge Rainville said he would release her on conditions too if she could produce a responsible adult to take custody of her, but that adult must not be the same adult as Edward’s.
Dahmir Simmons was charged with possessing cocaine but was also four counts related to the assault in Burlington a few days prior.
Simmons had recently appeared in front of Gregory Rainville on other charges, where Rainville released him on conditions. Those conditions included not going to the address at which the assault allegedly took place.
Rainville ultimately held Simmons on $25,000 bail, as well as other conditions.
In addition to the cocaine, police seized cell phones and a night owl video security system.
