Brighton bust nets $1 million in cash and drugs

State and federal officials descended on a quiet Oak Square street and left with 125 pounds of marijuana, $500,000 in cash and four suspects in one of the largest drug busts ever in Brighton.

Michael A. Harris, 29, Melissa Russell, 26, and Effie Hios, 26, all of 8 Hardwick Street, Brighton, and William Morgan, 27, of Miami Beach, Florida, were arrested in the raid, police said. They were all charged with trafficking in a class D substance between 100 and 2000 pounds, and conspiring to violate state drug laws, according to Jake Wark, spokesman for the Suffolk County district attorney’s office.

The April 19 bust, which was part of a joint operation between US Immigration and Customs (ICE), the DEA, Massachusetts State Police, and detectives from District 14, was pulled off thanks to a witness cooperating with ICE.

The witness told agents that he had been working for an organization operating out of Canada, and was making regular trips from the border to the Boston area to deliver marijuana for them, police reports state. On April 19 he tipped them off that later that day he would be driving a shipment from Massena, NY, on the Canadian border, to the Boston area.

ICE put the witness under surveillance when he told them that the drop-off would happen somewhere in the Allston-Brighton area. Agents first observed him stop at the corner of Commonwealth Ave. and Harvard Ave., where suspect Harris got into the witness’s vehicle.

Authorities then followed Harris and the witness to 8 Hardwick Street in Brighton, where Harris allegedly took the drugs out of the trunk and gave the witness $400,000 in a white cardboard box, which he was instructed to use for his next pickup in Canada.

The witness left the residence a short time later and turned the currency over to ICE agents. Armed with the cash and the information from the witness, authorities were then able to secure search warrants for the premises.

The first search warrant, which covered the house, turned up over $100,000 in US currency and approximately 100 pounds of marijuana. Harris, Russell, Morgan, and Hios, all of whom were in the house at the time of the search, were arrested.

A second search warrant resulted in the seizure of another 25 pounds of marijuana and a large amount of cash from a vehicle in the garage.

According to police sources, the 125 pounds of marijuana seized has a street value near $500,000.