750 bags of heroin found in car -- just feet from 9-year-old boy

(Photo: Massachusetts State Police)



Holyoka, MA (WSHM) -- State police arrested three New Hampshire residents that were allegedly trafficking more than 750 bags of heroin through Massachusetts via Interstate 91 late Sunday night.

One suspect told state police that they purchased the heroin in bulk in Hartford, CT, as cheap as $3 a bag, according to police officials.

Investigating troopers found a 9-year-old boy seated just inches from more than 700 bags of the drug, state police said.

The investigation began when a trooper in Holyoke spotted a brown Ford Taurus traveling northbound with several motor vehicle violations. The trooper activated his takedown lights and siren, but the driver proceeded north down the highway slowly for about a mile until fully stopping the vehicle, police said.

Troopers spoke to the three suspects individually and found multiple glassine packets of heroin on each of them, officials said.

The passengers were identified as 30-year-old Jason Rise and 23-year-old Alyssa Ennis, both of Charlestown, NH. Both were charged with drug trafficking and other drug related charges, but Rise was additionally charged with resisting arrest, according to an arrest report.

Rise had 30 bags of heroin in his pocket, and Ennis had multiple bags of the narcotic in her possession, police said.

The driver and father of the 9-year-old child, identified as Kelly Gobin, 41, of Newport, NH, was charged with child endangerment in addition to drug trafficking.

After a full search of the vehicle, police found a black plastic bag in a rear pocket on the driver's seat that contained approximately 750 more bags of heroin, the arrest report indicated.