Husband and wife plead not guilty in Superior Court concerning alleged role in Fall River, Taunton area drug trafficking organization

A local couple facing drug charges pled not guilty in Fall River Superior Court on Wednesday.

According to Massachusetts State Police, investigators assigned to the South Team of the Massachusetts State Police Commonwealth Interstate Narcotics Reduction Enforcement Team (CINRET-South) initiated a narcotics investigation into a drug trafficking organization involved in the distribution of fentanyl and cocaine in the Taunton and Fall River areas.

Ramon Nieves and his wife, Esther Nieves, were identified as suspected suppliers. Investigators obtained multiple warrants, in combination with a controlled purchase of fentanyl, and a motor vehicle stop of a customer resulting in a seizure of trafficking amounts of fentanyl and cocaine.

Investigators sought and were granted search warrants for three apartments in Fall River and one Chevrolet Silverado believed to be used by the Nieves in furtherance of drug trafficking.

Comprehensive searches revealed more than 3,915 grams of fentanyl, $8,000 in cash, and other evidence of drug trafficking. Ramon Nieves was arrested and transported to SP Dartmouth where he was booked for trafficking fentanyl.

A coordinated operation involving hundreds of law enforcement personnel was then conducted to execute search warrants for twenty locations, fourteen cellular telephones, and ten vehicles.

These warrants led to an additional 18 arrests, and seized over 2,360 grams of cocaine, 1,365 grams of fentanyl, 33 firearms, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, high-capacity magazines, and $109,355.00 in cash.

This operation, surveillance, and search warrants were executed with assistance from Fall River Police Department Community Action and Suppression Team (CAST), Bristol County State Police Detective Unit, Troop D Detectives and Brockton PD.

According to court records, at Wednesday’s arraignment, Ramon’s bail was set at $200,000 surety/$20,000 cash. Esther was released on personal recognizance. Both have a pretrial conference scheduled for January 30th.