Lawrence man faces fentanyl, assault charges | Merrimack Valley

SALEM, Mass. — An alleged fentanyl dealer who rammed a Methuen detective’s unmarked cruiser during a drug investigation was indicted this week by the Essex County grand jury. 

Osvialis Serrano, 21, of 310 Howard St., third floor, Lawrence, was indicted on charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and trafficking more than 10 grams of fentanyl, according to court documents. 

Serrano was initially charged March 1 after narcotics detectives from Methuen and Lawrence police departments conducted an investigation in the vicinity of Bunkerhill and Buswell streets in Lawrence, according to a police report. 

The location is “indeed a high crime area as it relates to quality of life issues listed above and to include (drug violations). Our drug unit has had numerous experience and encounters that have resulted from illicit drug behaviors, transaction and possession charges. Our unit and other assisting agencies are responsible for many of these interactions that more than not result from this type of behavior and indicators,” wrote Detective Rhadames Gonzalez, who is assigned to the Lawrence Police Department’s Street Narcotics Enforcement Unit. 

Police say Serrano was driving a silver Honda Accord that pulled up in the area directly beside a red Toyota with New Hampshire plates. 

“The vehicles were side by side within an arm’s length of each other when we noted the driver and the passenger push their arms out the window and engage in what we believe was a hand-to-hand exchange of something that was notably being passed off. Immediately after they engaged in a second hand-to-hand exchange in something else being passed off,” Gonzalez wrote. 

The detectives watched as the vehicles were at a “stand still” in the middle of the roadway, he wrote. 

“In our training and experience we believed it was more reasonable than not that a basic street level drug transaction had been consummated in our presence,” Gonzalez wrote. 

The detectives decided to move in on both cars. Methuen Detective Tracy Noonan angled her unmarked police cruiser right behind the Accord, according to the report. 

But as Gonzalez approached the Accord, he heard Serrano throw the car into reverse with the engine revving loudly, he wrote. 

The Accord smashed right into Noonan’s cruiser, hitting the driver’s side door with his right rear bumper and totaling the unmarkedcar. 

Detectives then arrested Serrano at gunpoint, according to the report. 

Officers immediately saw “large plastic twists” of what they believed were illegal narcotics in the car, Gonzalez wrote. 

Some 197 grams of fentanyl, valued at nearly $12,000 in illegal street sales, were seized from Serrano, police said. 

In the near future, Serrano faces arraignment in Salem Superior Court where the penalties he faces if convicted will be more severe than at the district court level. 

On his Lawrence police booking slip, Serrano’s occupation is listed as “drop out student.” 

Follow staff reporter Jill Harmacinski on Twitter @EagleTribJill.