BY THOR JOURGENSEN
LYNN — A Department of Public Works laborer is on paid administrative leave after police charged him with selling drugs from a city truck.
Christopher Aliferis, 40, of 8 Morgan St., Lynn, pleaded not guilty Friday in District Court to Class B drug distribution and drug possession to distribute. Attempts to reach him for comment were unsuccessful.
Aliferis was released after his arraignment on $1,000 bail and ordered to return to court on Aug. 16 for a pretrial hearing. Commissioner Andrew Hall said Aliferis works in an entry-level position with the city.
“These are very serious allegations but everyone has their day in court,” Hall said.
During the past four months, police received tips about drug activity at Aliferis’ address and information from his co-workers “that they suspected Aliferis was selling narcotics during work hours out of the city-owned truck,” according to a police report filed by Officer John Bernard.
Officers observed Aliferis on Thursday hand something to a man sitting in a truck at the back of the Equitable Bank parking lot on Broadway, the report said. After Aliferis drove off in a city truck, police questioned a 30-year-old Lynn man who admitted he bought nine pills identified as oxycodone from Aliferis.
Officers located Aliferis in Pine Grove Cemetery, arrested him and asked him, according to the report, if he was selling Oxycodone.
“He stated that ‘he is prescribed 30 pills a month and takes three a day.’ Aliferis said that ‘he needs help badly and that he was buying additional percs and selling some of them and then using the rest,’” the report stated.
Police will seek a drug possession complaint against the man who told them he bought drugs from Aliferis.
Thor Jourgensen can be reached at [email protected].
