Earlier this month, a Dukes County grand jury indicted Jeffrey Sylvia, 27, of Oak Bluffs, on drug-trafficking charges in connection with his arrest last July for heroin possession and trafficking. On Monday, Mr. Sylvia is scheduled to be arraigned at the Dukes County Courthouse in Edgartown. However, he will not walk in unaccompanied — he will be in the custody of Suffolk County Sheriff’s deputies.
On Friday afternoon, March 18, members of the Boston Police undercover drug unit said they observed Mr. Sylvia, in the Fields Corner section of the city, make a drug transaction. Police arrested him following a brief foot chase. A search of his person turned up a bag of marijuana and a bag containing 25.6 grams of heroin, police said. He was arrested for trafficking heroin and trafficking heroin in a school zone.
Mr. Sylvia provided a Vineyard Haven address that local police said is where his mother lives. He is thought to have been living in Dorchester.
The indictment handed down this month stems from his arrest last July, when members of the Martha’s Vineyard Drug Task Force searched a rental house at 7 Arrowhead Lane in Oak Bluffs, where they seized 46 grams of heroin and arrested Mr. Sylvia and William Bailey, 33, who they described as “a known heroin addict,” for being present where heroin is kept.
In July, Mr. Sylvia was arrested for heroin possession and trafficking, and with possession of Percocet, Suboxone, and marijuana. He was also charged with operating in a drug-free school zone, because the house is within 300 feet of the Oak Bluffs School.
Police searched the house and found the 46 grams of heroin, three Suboxone strips, crushed Percocet pills, approximately 1 ounce of marijuana, and $8,934 in cash, in a safe they said belonged to Mr. Sylvia. Numerous syringes and other drug paraphernalia were also found in the house, according to the police report.
