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| Photo: Nicholas Iovino/Wicked Local |
| The owner of Pinky’s Famous Pizza on Main Street, Medford, Mass., was arrested and charged with possession of 250 pounds of marijuana. |
A pizza shop owner in Medford, Massachusetts is facing drug trafficking charges after police claimed they found what they described as “more than $750,000 worth” of “high-grade” marijuana in his pickup truck last week, prosecutors said on Wednesday.
Police said after getting a tip that owner Nikita Yanakopulos was scheduled to receive a
large shipment” of marijuana last Friday, August 26, in Everett, they began surveillance of him, reports Peter Schworm at the
Boston Globe.
After followed him around Friday as he drove around Everett in a white pickup truck, officers said they saw Yanakopulos that morning in a parking lot loading cardboard boxes into the back of his pickup before driving off, according to court records.
Officers tailed him to a Dunkin’ Donuts drive-through, where they arrested him. Police had obtained a search warrant based on the allegation that the boxes contained marijuana. They found 11 cardboard boxes with 213 heat-sealed bags containing a total of 250 pounds of pot.
“These are troubling allegations into the suspected trafficking of over three-quarters of a million dollars of marijuana by a local business owner,” said Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr.
Police said they seized the truck, three cellphones, and $2,366 in cash in the arrest. Yanakopulos indicated he did not want to speak to officers during the booking process.
