Hampden District Attorney's Office announces new technology to combat drug trafficking
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – The Hampden District Attorney's Office announced new tools and technology in connection with their National Guard partnership to combat drug trafficking in the region.
In a news release sent to 22News from the Hampden District Attorney's Office, the announcement is regarding their partnership with the National Guard and the military's donation to help combat illicit narcotic trafficking by targeting Transnational Criminal Organizations and other Drug Trafficking Organizations and violent gangs.
The announcement at Tower Square on Main Street in Springfield highlighted the collaboration of the District Attorney's Office with the Massachusetts National Guard, the New England High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (NEHIDTA), and the Massachusetts State Police.
Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni was be joined by Adjutant General of the Massachusetts National Guard Major General Gary Keefe, New England High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Director Jay Fallon, and Massachusetts State Police Superintendent Colonel Geoffrey Noble. Those also who joined the news conference are the following:
Massachusetts National Guard:
COL Bryan Pillai, Counterdrug Program Coordinator
CSM Peter Pouliot, Counterdrug Advisory Council, Senior Enlisted Advisor
CSM Daniel Doherty, MA Counterdrug Program, Senior Enlisted Advisor
NEHIDTA:
Assistant Director Dave Kelly
Massachusetts State Police:
Lt Col Mark Cyr, Deputy Superintendent
Lt Col Marc Lavoie, Commander, Division of Homeland Security
Lt Col Daniel Tucker, Commander, Division of Investigative Services
Lt Col Brendan Sugrue, Commander, Division of Field Services
Hampden SPDU DLT Liam Jones
A Chicopee man was charged last week with trafficking cocaine after a traffic stop revealed drugs hidden in different compartments throughout the vehicle. Last month, the Springfield Police Department made an arrest in connection with trafficking heroin on St. James Circle after thousands of bags were recovered.
Two arrested, thousands of bags of heroin seized in Springfield
The National Guard is a state-based military force and serves federal roles for the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force when activated. The Massachusetts National Guard is led by Major General Gary Keefe, headquartered at Hanscom Air Force Base. The Massachusetts National Guard Counterdrug Program provides multi-year support to the District Attorney's Drug Task Forces, Massachusetts State Police narcotics units, and NEHIDTA initiatives throughout the region.
22News is covering this story and will update as soon as additional information is released preceding the news conference.
WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on WWLP.com.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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‘Find and destroy' – how Ukraine's own Peaky Blinders mastered the art of bomber drones
Editor's note: In accordance with the security protocols of the Ukrainian military, soldiers featured in this story are identified by first names and callsigns only. DONETSK OBLAST – From the moment the vehicles duck into pre-prepared positions in the leafy treeline to the first dead Russian soldiers, less than twenty minutes pass. \With the morning sun steadily rising after the team of six complete their short commute to work, the equipment is set up in a clockwork-like rhythm: long telescopic antennas are raised to just peak out of the treeline and sway in the light wind, cables are unravelled, and camping chairs are laid out so the men can work in absolute comfort. Out of heavy-duty plastic travel cases emerge the soldiers' weapons of choice: DJI Mavic drones, available all over the world in shops and of the kind used by civilian video bloggers and aerial photographers everywhere. Here in Donetsk Oblast, just west of the embattled city of Pokrovsk and only a few kilometers away from Russian positions, lost time means missed opportunities to stop the enemy creeping forward to Ukrainian lines. When your unit is consistently deployed to the hottest parts of the front line to do exactly that, every minute counts. Commander Oleksandr 'Zalizniak' is the first to fly out, with an unassuming little munition strapped to the bottom of his Mavic. Zalizniak leads an elite Ukrainian drone unit known as the Peaky Blinders, named after the hit television show which inspired the group's custom-made camouflage flat caps that they often wear on positions. The unit was formed from a group of friends from Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, and its surrounds. Consisting of businessmen, lawyers, local officials, and IT specialists, Peaky Blinders now serve under the banner of the Omega special operations unit of Ukraine's National Guard. Although they also use the more well-known first-person view (FPV) drones, the Peaky Blinders' specialty is the use of Mavics as bomber drones to target expendable Russian foot soldiers, which have become the core of Moscow's assault tactics in Ukraine. The Kyiv Independent spent a full day embedded with the unit in late April. Low on battery and needing to return soon if he doesn't hit a target, Zalizniak spots movement in a treeline with thin foliage cover – two Russian troops, carrying something large between them. As commander and the most experienced Mavic pilot, it doesn't take long for Zalizniak to close in on his target, hovering over 50 meters above as he releases the bomb with the push of a button. The result is spectacular: a red-hot fireball bursts out of the large item carried by the Russian soldiers, which turned out to be a fuel canister. Both infantrymen, wounded from the blast itself, are quickly engulfed in flames. The drone lingers to watch their last moments, burning alive among the trees on another country's soil. 'Look at the two of them, they burned up at work,' says the commander with the wry small and dark humor that only someone who does his kind of job could have. Without enough battery to return, Zalizniak's drone is lost, but it's a small price to pay for what was achieved, as those two soldiers' journey toward Ukrainian lines was ended, forever. 'The protection of our infantry is our main driving ideology and our motivation, so that as many of them as possible will one day return home' he said. 'The way I see it, for this whole war, we haven't actually killed anyone, instead we have saved hundreds of lives.' 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Compared to the work of a standard strike FPV team, where a target is first found by reconnaissance teams, only after which a drone is sent out to hit it, this unit does both on the same flight, giving them the ability to strike immediately after spotting an enemy soldier. 'We made our own antennas with amplification, and we can now fly out 8–9 kilometers,' said Zalizniak. 'Thanks to that, we're getting a big result — we're flying into their rear, where they don't expect to see us. But because of that, we're also losing drones.' After moving positions before lunch due to neighboring electronic warfare activity disrupting their work, the four pilots once again fly out into the Russian rear, but in the midday heat, the Russian soldiers are nowhere to be seen out and about. Often, Zalizniak told the Kyiv Independent, when conditions are too good for drone flying, Russian soldiers stay put in basements or other forms of cover. When targets are less keen to come out into the open, one of the most important skills of any aspiring Mavic bomber pilot becomes spotting even the slightest movement on the screen of their remote control. Unlike the cheap cameras on expendable FPV drones, Mavic drones are equipped with high-definition cameras, and some have significant zoom abilities, making them the perfect tool for such joint reconnaissance/bomber missions. "This is where I find creativity,' said pilot Maksym 'Mytrych.' 'Right here — in the very process of fighting the enemy. It's incredibly interesting — how to approach, from which side. For me, it's like a kind of dance." These Russian assaults represent fresh attempts by Moscow to deepen the pincers around the embattled city of Pokrovsk, which has been the central hotspot of the front line since last autumn. East of Pokrovsk, after a period of stability over early spring, Russian forces broke across the Pokrovsk-Kostiantynivka highway, creating a threatening salient that continues to be expanded. Here on the western flank of the city however, Moscow has much less success, stuck just a few kilometers east of the border with Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. But, according to commander Zalizniak, this is not for a lack of trying. 'The enemy has been very active since we've been working here and has been carrying out assaults the whole time,' he said. 'Sometimes they were weaker, sometimes stronger, but they have been happening constantly — from morning to evening, and even at night.' Small, nimble, and easy to deploy quickly, the Peaky Blinders are consistently deployed to some of the hottest sectors of the front line, specialized as they are in repelling enemy infantry assaults. Before being deployed to Donetsk Oblast in the fall of 2024, they played a crucial role in bogging down Russia's surprise cross-border offensive on Kharkiv Oblast, headed for the city that the unit was formed to defend in the first place. Now, with Russian forces increasingly relying on waves of squad-level infantry attacks to overwhelm overstretched Ukrainian lines, their work is crucial in keeping key sectors stable. In conditions of an ever-deepening crisis in infantry strength across the Ukrainian military, it has become more important than ever to eliminate Russian assault groups with drones and artillery long before they reach Ukrainian positions. Over five days of the group's work near Pokrovsk in spring, according to Zalizniak, the Peaky Blinders stopped 106 enemy soldiers in their tracks; numbers higher than most entire specialized drone battalions in standard Ukrainian brigades, achieved by a team of only six in the field. 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'You see your comrades who are devoted to this task, and you realize that you're all focused on one shared, effective outcome that you're achieving together.' On the drive back to their base in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, the team crosses open fields that will remain unplanted and unharvested this summer. Their vehicles are protected with electronic warfare devices for the short but deadly drive, but now, with the advent of unjammable Russian fiber optic drones, they always have to keep an eye out for hunters in the air. With Russian advances gaining pace across key sectors of the front line over May and into June, soldiers here have little faith in renewed attempts to reach at least a ceasefire through negotiations. Instead, said Deputat, groups like the Peaky Blinders see clearly that the only real efforts for peace are forged by their own hands, by stopping Russia here on the battlefield. 'In truth, I've come to understand one golden essence and truth: decisions aren't made back there in offices — they're made here, on the ground, locally,' he said, 'that's the objective truth of the modern world.' 'I want peace, but seeing the efforts made for the so-called resolution of the conflict, I don't see that peace.' You can watch the video version of this story here: Hi, this is Francis Farrell, the author of this piece. With the increasing saturation of drones in the sky, I can't say for sWe could just stay in Kyiv and report from there, but we go to the war regularly, to bring it back to you before it comes knocking on your door for real. We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
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Russia's National Guard kills man attempting drone attack on military site, agency claims
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Karen Read live updates: Crude text messages from fired state trooper read to jury
Editor's note: This page summarizes testimony in the Karen Read trial for Thursday, May 8. For the latest updates on the Karen Read retrial, visit USA TODAY's coverage for Friday, May 9. Another Massachusetts state trooper took the stand in the murder trial of Karen Read on May 8, reading crude text messages sent by one of his subordinates during the investigation. Read, 45, is accused of hitting her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O'Keefe, with her Lexus SUV and leaving him for dead outside the home of a fellow cop in January 2022. Prosecutors say Read deliberately hit O'Keefe, 46, in a drunken rage. The testimony comes after defense attorneys sparred with an expert over the timing of a star witness' Google search. An analysis of the phone of Jennifer McCabe, a friend of the couple who testified for the prosecution, found she Googled how long does it take to die in the cold the day O'Keefe was found. A second expert testified that the search was made after O'Keefe was found unconscious, not before as the defense has suggested. Read's lawyers say she was framed for O'Keefe's murder. Court ended May 7 with prosecutors playing a clip of Read saying "Jen McCabe, it's me or her. Either I'm going down, Jen, or you are." The case out of Dedham, Massachusetts has turned into a years-long whodunnit legal saga that has garnered massive intrigue from true-crime fans across the country, spurring an array of podcasts, movies, and television shows. The former financial professor is back in court after a 2024 trial ended in a hung jury. The first full day of testimony was April 23. Judge Beverly Cannone estimated the trial could last between six and eight weeks and told jurors recently that the proceedings are on or slightly ahead of schedule. One of Read's attorneys questioned Yuri Bukhenik, a Massachusetts State Police trooper, about the thoroughness of his investigation, including whether he investigated the possibility that O'Keefe was involved in a physical altercation before his death. Bukhenik said it was possible he told the medical examiner's office on Jan. 29, 2022, that O'Keefe had potentially been struck in the face with a cocktail glass. Bukhenik said he did not go into the house or secure the lawn as a crime scene on the day O'Keefe was found outside. But he said he interviewed the homeowner, Brian Albert, and two witnesses, McCabe and her husband, to determine if anyone in the house had been involved in an altercation. Read's attorney asked if witnesses who were in the house would be motivated to lie if they were involved an altercation with O'Keefe. Bukhenik said he couldn't answer that, but later acknowledged that someone who appears to be a cooperating witness could be a suspect who's lying. Bukhenik is expected to return to the stand on May 9. One of Read's attorney started questioning by pressing Bukhenik about the involvement of his former subordinate, Michael Proctor, in the investigation. Bukhenik said Proctor, who was later fired for unrelated charges, was involved with collecting evidence, authoring search warrants and conducting interviews. But Bukhenik denied that Proctor had a major role in the investigation in the contentious back and forth. Ultimately, Bukhenik said bias and Proctor's involvement did not taint the investigation. 'This investigation was conducted professionally with integrity and all the evidence collected, all the statements collected pointed in one direction,' Bukhenik said. 'All the evidence pointed in one direction and one direction only,' he later added. Bukhenik read aloud to the jury crude text messages sent by an officer he supervised during the investigation into Read. In the August 2022 messages, trooper Michael Proctor used a slur and said he was going through a person's phone but had found 'no nudes so far.' Bukhenik did not identify the people Proctor was referring to in the messages. Bukhenik said an internal investigation later found he failed to adequately supervise Proctor and gave an inaccurate quarterly performance review. He said he lost five vacation days as a result. Proctor, who testified in Read's first trial, was fired in March for reasons unrelated to the text messages. Bukhenik also described the process of finding evidence as the snow melted in the days following O'Keefe's death including his hat, a drinking straw and more pieces of clear and red plastic. Prosecutors played Ring and dash camera footage showing the damage to Read's taillight. Bukhenik began to walk jurors through surveillance footage from the two restaurants where Read and O'Keefe went drinking the night prior to his death before the court broke for lunch. Bukhenik told jurors what Read said to police and what O'Keefe's body looked like the day he died. Bukhenik said blood was pooled beneath O'Keefe's head and seeping into the sheets of his hospital bed after his death. Both of O'Keefe's eyes were swollen and discolored and there were small cuts on his face. Bukhenik said there were also cuts and bruises on his right arm, hand and knee. Bukhenik showed jurors pieces of clothing O'Keefe was wearing the day he died. He said he found it 'very significant' that one of O'Keefe's shoes was missing and while he was at the hospital, he began to theorize that O'Keefe had been struck by a car. 'I was suspecting that he was hit out of his shoes,' Bukhenik said. O'Keefe's sneaker was later found at the scene, according to previous testimony. Bukhenik then went to talk to Read at her parents' home, where he saw that a large piece of the red taillight cover was missing from her SUV. When asked about the damage, Read said, 'I don't know how I did it last night.' Read told police that after a night of drinking, she dropped O'Keefe off at 34 Fairview Road. She said she made a three-point turn and left without seeing him go into the house, according to Bukhenik. When asked how O'Keefe might have sustained his injuries, Read told police O'Keefe had bumped his head two nights before and had asked her about it. Police then seized Read's vehicle and cell phone, Bukhenik said. Jessica Hyde, a digital forensics examiner, said a tab was opened on Jennifer McCabe's phone at 2:27 a.m. on Jan. 29 and multiple searches were made at some point, including for sporting events, a video of the song It's Raining Men and two crucial, misspelled questions 'hos (sic) long to die in the cold' and 'how long ti die in cikd (sic)' Hyde said 'hos (sic) long to die in cold' was the final search made in the tab at 6:24 a.m. O'Keefe was found around 6 a.m. Hyde is the second expert to tell jurors this search was made after 6 a.m. Ian Whiffin, a digital intelligence expert, testified on April 28 that forensic data showed the Google search occurred at about 6:23 a.m. Read's attorney attempted to poke holes in Hyde's testimony by pointing out differences between her previous testimony, her report and Whiffin's findings. CourtTV has been covering the case against Read and the criminal investigation since early 2022, when O'Keefe's body was found outside a Canton home. You can watch CourtTV's live feed of the Read trial proceedings from Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Massachusetts. Proceedings begin at 9 a.m. ET. Contributing: Michael Loria, USA TODAY This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Karen Read trial updates: Jurors hear crude texts from fired trooper
