Huge bails for big shots in Lynn drug bust

LYNN – A District Court judge set million-dollar bails for two men prosecutors described as main players in an $8.5 million cocaine load seized by police Saturday on the Lynnway.Police drug task force officers arrested Modesto “Macobi” Castillo and Sergio Valdovinos after observing four other people transfer 84 rectangular blocks of packaged cocaine from a flatbed trailer to a pickup truck.Police staked out the Lynn Motor Sales at 315 Lynnway at 10 a.m. Saturday. At 12:45 p.m., according to state Trooper Gregg DesFosses’ report, they saw a truck pulling a flatbed trailer drive into the dealership lot.The officers watched as Raul Cortinas and Guille Garcia unscrewed a metal plate attached to the trailer bed, revealing a compartment from which they unloaded the blocks. They loaded the cocaine into three bags and transferred the drugs to a pickup.Police charged Cortinas, Garcia, Valdovinos, Castillo, Rafael Mercedes and Adam Alcala with trafficking cocaine. All six pleaded innocent to the charge. Trafficking is punishable with a 15-year minimum mandatory sentence.”Each had a role,” Assistant District Attorney Christine Ronan said in asking Judge James LaMothe to set $2 million bail apiece for the six.LaMothe assigned $50,000 bail to Mercedes who, according to DesFosses’ report, told police he was to be paid $10,000 to be the courier for the drug transaction.”He knew he was picking up a large amount of drugs,” Ronan said.LaMothe set $100,000 bail for Alcala and $500,000 each for Cortinas and Garcia.According to court testimony, the six have previous arrests for charges ranging from assault on a child to firearms and drug charges.Valdovinos’ attorney argued his client was at the dealership looking at a car at the time of the arrests and Amy Sixt, Castillo’s lawyer, said “He was not handling the drugs. He was on the periphery.”LaMothe halted the arraignment shortly before 1 p.m. after Mercedes’ sister, Ivelesse, fainted in a courtroom aisle. She was breathing and being treated by court personnel when paramedics arrived at the court.A relative said the Boston woman suffers from diabetes and is undergoing cancer treatment.Saturday’s seizure had its origins in early 2006 when investigators probing a drug organization trafficking cocaine north and northwest of Boston identified Castillo as “a high ranking member.”DesFosses’ report said the investigators connected Castillo to Mercedes and Valdovinos and learned of the April 5 drug transaction four weeks ago.The Lynnway rendezvous brought Garcia, a mother of two, from Mexico and Cortinas and Acala from Texas and Arkansas, respectively. Valdovinos gave police a Boston address, as did Mercedes, and police said Castillo is from Chicago.The next court date for the six is May 6.