Swansea man arraigned on drug charge, ordered shipments to home, work

A Swansea man has been arraigned on a drug charge after a State Police investigation found that the man ordered shipments of Ketamine and had them sent to his home and place of work according to Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz.

An investigation led by the State Police Commonwealth Interstate Narcotic Reduction Enforcement Team, with assistance from Massachusetts State Police Detectives and Carver Police, led to the arrest of James W. Carey, 39, of Swansea at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.

The investigation alleges that on August 2nd, two DHL packages sent internationally from Cameroon, were seized by investigators with Homeland Security conducting routine inspections of packages at JFK Airport in New York. The packages were addressed to Carey’s Swansea home and his workplace in Carver. The inspections of the packages revealed that they contained multiple bottles labeled “Natural Ginseng”. Contents of the package were field tested and determined to contain 6.6 kilograms of liquid Ketamine, an anesthetic used in human and veterinary medicine. The liquid Ketamine can be cooked into a powder substance and ingested, and each liter bottle would produce 50 grams of powder Ketamine. The postal packages were immediately seized and ultimately turned over to Massachusetts State Police.

Massachusetts State Police sought and obtained anticipatory search warrants for both listed addresses and on August 8th, along with US Postal Inspection Services, executed controlled deliveries of the packages at both Carey’s home and workplace, a group home for adults.

At approximately 3:30 p.m. an undercover US postal inspector made a controlled delivery to Carey’s place of work. State Police developed information that the listed addressee on the Carver package was a resident of the group home for adults, Carey told the undercover postal inspector that the addressee was not home and accepted the package. Shortly thereafter, Carey proceeded to his vehicle and State Police approached and placed him under arrest.

After obtaining a search warrant for Carey’s home and workplace, State Police seized three cell phones and 3.3 kilograms of liquid Ketamine in Carver and evidence of intent to distribute in Swansea.

Carey was arraigned Thursday in Wareham on one count of Possession with Intent to Distribute Class A Ketamine. Judge Therese Wright held Carey on $15,000 cash bail and ordered him to wear a GPS monitoring bracelet if he should post bail. He is next scheduled to appear in court on September 7th.

The investigation is ongoing.