Lynn man charged with trafficking heroin

LYNN – Judge James LaMothe ordered a Lynn father held in Middleton Jail in lieu of $10,000 cash Monday during his arraignment in Lynn District Court after Lynn Police arrested and charged him with trafficking more than 28 grams of heroin near a school or park on Friday morning.Modesto Cruz, 35, of 4 Johnson?s Terrace #1, was charged with possession of a Class A drug with intent to distribute, possession of a Class D drug with intent to distribute, two counts of drug possession near a school, trafficking more than 28 grams of a Class A drug, unlicensed possession of a firearm and unlicensed possession of ammunition.Police applied for a warrant to search Cruz?s home on Thursday and carried it out Friday morning, according to a police report. Inside the empty home, members of the Essex Narcotics Team and Lynn Drug Task Force found two bags of heroin in a bedroom bureau, one weighing about 9.6 grams, the other weighing about 22 grams, the report said.A “whitish, powdery substance” weighing about 49 grams was also seized, along with a small amount of marijuana, according to the report. Police took from the home “a digital scale, packaging materials, cut baggies, binoculars and a gun cleaning kit from the apartment,” the report said.Investigating officers believed Cruz “was maintaining a second residence to distance himself from the location he maintained as his drug distribution location,” the report said, and they were able to track down his new address, 130 Fayette St., from his daughter?s school records.Police arrested Cruz at his second address shortly before 8 a.m. Friday. They found $3,057 cash, another digital scale, marijuana and ammunition inside the home, according to the report.Cruz is scheduled to stand trial in Salem Superior Court on April 17 for charges filed in 2011 of possession of ammunition, carrying a firearm without a license and firearm violation with one prior violent or drug crime, according to Carrie Kimball Monahan, spokesperson for Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett.Monahan said she wasn?t sure whether Cruz?s new charges affect his current case, but that they would likely be addressed at his pre-trial hearing, scheduled for April 2. Records indicate he is due back in Lynn District Court on March 1 for a probable cause hearing.Taylor Provost can be reached at [email protected].