Grand jury indicts New York woman in cocaine trafficking case

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Mitefea Kelly (left) and Terrence Bell, the man police said supplied the drugs she carried to Martha's Vineyard, were arraigned August 10 in Edgartown District Court. — File photo by Michelle Williams

A Dukes Count Superior Court grand jury meeting October 1 indicted Mitefea Kelly, 18, of the Queens borough of New York City, in what police say is the largest seizure of cocaine in Island history.

The indictment alleges trafficking in more than 200 grams of cocaine. The mandatory minimum sentence for that crime is 15 years in state prison.

Members of the Martha’s Vineyard Drug Task Force arrested Ms. Kelly August 9, moments after she stepped off a ferry in Oak Bluffs. According to the police report, they found 270 grams of cocaine in her luggage, worth an estimated $30,000.

Police say she was part of a long-running drug distribution link between Martha’s Vineyard and the Hollis neighborhood of Queens. Police describe her as a drug courier. Ms. Kelly remains in custody at the Bristol County House of Corrections, held on $200,000 bail.

Also indicted Monday was Trevor J. Medeiros, 20, of Vineyard Haven, on two charges of statutory rape of a child. Mr. Mederios was arrested in July, after police investigated a report of a rape at Owen Park.

The sentence for statutory rape of a child ranges from no jail time to life in prison.

Both defendants faced similar charges in Edgartown District Court, where the maximum penalty a judge can impose is 2.5 years in a house of correction. A grand jury indictment moves the case to Dukes County Superior Court and allows the court to consider a wider range of sentences.