An Aide To Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey Was Arrested After Authorities Seized 18 Pounds Of Cocaine He Had Delivered To A State Government Building
Boston Globe - A Springfield-based aide to Governor Maura Healey is out of his job after authorities said they seized eight kilograms — or nearly 18 pounds — of cocaine that were slated to be delivered to a downtown state building where he worked.
LaMar Cook, 45, was arrested Tuesday night, a day after investigators searched his office, and charged with cocaine trafficking, as well as counts of carrying a gun and ammunition without a license, and driving without a license, according to the Hampden district attorney’s office.
Cook pleaded not guilty during his arraignment Wednesday in Springfield District Court. A judge ordered him to be held at Hampden County jail, pending a dangerousness hearing scheduled for Friday.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Healey said Cook’s conduct was “unacceptable and represents a major breach of the public trust.” Cook, who was serving as the deputy director of the governor’s Western Massachusetts office, was fired “effective immediately,” Healey’s office said.
“This criminal investigation is ongoing, and our administration will work with law enforcement to assist them in their work,” the spokesperson, Karissa Hand, said in a statement.
According to District Attorney Anthony D. Gulluni’s office, the investigation stems from two seizures earlier this month, including an Oct. 10 seizure of two suspicious packages that had 13 kilograms, or nearly 29 pounds, of cocaine at Hotel UMass in Amherst. Cook served as director of the UMass hotel for nearly seven years, according to LinkedIn.
On Saturday, police intercepted eight more kilograms of cocaine at the state building on Dwight Street in downtown Springfield, which is also home to a district office for the secretary of state and the Hampden County registry of deeds, among other state offices.
(Live look at the statehouse)
File this one under the least shocking news story of the year.
Massachusetts bureaucracy is so open-door that apparently you can ship 18 pounds of party favors straight to a state office like it’s printer toner. Not a nightclub. Not a Miami shipping dock. The registry-of-deeds building.
If your government address doubles as a drop spot, your org chart is a treasure map. Hate to break it to you, but facts are facts.
Shout out to the administration’s official statement calling the conduct “unacceptable”, which is a very polite way to say the office nearly turned into a snow globe. "Unacceptable" is forgetting to reply-all. Unacceptable is over-ordering paperclips.
When you’re turning the secretary of state’s district building into a Scarface's home office, the term you want to use is “fucking insane.”
What makes this story extra bonkers is the location and the day job this guy had. We are not talking about a yacht in Miami. We are talking about a fluorescent-lit hallway in a dumpy Commonwealth building in shithole Springfield. Surely with a few broken Keurigs, and a sign that says, "Please replace the paper in Tray 2."
State government says it wants to "run like a business". That's cool. How about maybe not one that needs a vacuum sealer?
People go to state offices to do miserable grown-up errands, not to walk through Narcos on their lunch break. If your job title is "deputy director", the only lines you should worry about are at the service counter of the DMV.