The Martha’s Vineyard Drug Task force arrested Adam Robinson, 35, and his father, David Robinson 59, on numerous drug-related charges, including possession of heroin, Wednesday night.
Using a warrant, police entered and searched a home on North Williams Street in Tisbury at approximately 6 pm, according to the Oak Bluffs police.
Police seized several bundles of individual paper folds which contained a brown powdery substance believed to be heroin, and scales commonly used to weigh drugs for distribution.
Multiple safes were found at the house. According to the police report, Adam Robinson claimed he didn’t know the combinations to the safes. Members of the Tisbury Fire Department were called to the scene and successfully opened them by removing the hinges with “hydraulic extrication tools,” according to Tisbury fire chief John Schilling. Basically, the equipment used to rescue someone from a crumpled car involved in a crash. “I’ve been with the department since 1980 and that was a first,” he told The Times.
One of the safes contained more bundles of paper folds with suspected heroin inside.
Both men were are charged with possession of heroin with the intent to distribute, drug violation in a school zone and conspiracy to violate drug laws.
They are being held at Dukes County Jail and will be arraigned Thursday morning, according to the Dukes County Sheriff’s office.
This is the second drug-related arrest for Adam Robinson in the past month. On March 27, Boston Police arrested him in Mattapan with officers recovered 186 paper folds of heroin (more than 30 grams), one plastic bag of cocaine (approximately 14 grams), nine Xanax pills, and two Trazodone pills. He was charged with trafficking a Class A drug (heroin), possession with intent to distribute a Class B drug (cocaine), Class C and Class E drugs and conspiracy to violate drug laws. He was out on $7,500 bail at the time of his arrest.
Coincidentally, Mr. Robinson had a pretrial conference in a Boston Court earlier on Wednesday, hours before task force members searched his Tisbury residence.
Dark cloud over the neighborhood
A Tisbury resident who asked not to be identified said the arrests are a welcome development in the neighborhood. “It’s definitely a relief. People have been genuinely afraid. This is a wonderful neighborhood and that house been a dark cloud over it for some time.” he said. “There are people coming and going at all hours, in all different states of mind, people screaming and yelling, it was bizarre. It came to a head last month when a woman overdosed and was half naked, half in the road. Fortunately the police saved her with Narcan, which I hear happens almost every day here.”
High praise was given to Tisbury Police and the Drug Task Force.
“The police have been super professional,” he said. “We all got together a while back and expressed our concerns. They’ve been a steady presence and have been parked here a lot.”
He said police had advised them not to put up security cameras or to get directly involved because of possible retaliation when the Robinsons get out of jail. After his arrest in Boston, Adam Robinson was jailed for three days before being released on $7,500 bail.
Surveillance pays off
Edgartown detective Michael Snowden, also a member of the Drug Task Force, told The Times that the Robinsons have been under surveillance for months.
“Detective Sherman from Tisbury P.D. and I have been investigating Mr. Robinson pretty actively for quite a while and everything came together over the past couple of months,” he said. “Right now we’re in the process of trying to get Adam’s bail revoked from the Boston case.”
According to Detective Snowden, activity at Mr. Robinson’s house dropped off after his Boston arrest, but only briefly.
“About a week after his arrest, the activity picked up again at the house. He was going off-Island more frequently and his pattern was pretty consistent with his pattern prior to his arrest in Boston.”
Leading up to the arrests, Detective Snowden said the director of the nearby Montessori School had recently contacted police after finding a syringe in front of the school.
An arrest last weekend potentially implicated the Robinsons.
“We had three overdoses last weekend, one of them fatal,” he said. “One of the people was arrested for possession with intent to distribute heroin. We recognized the packaging as similar to the Robinsons. The next day David Robinson showed up at the Tisbury police station looking to get the vehicle, and inquired about the cell phone. We knew something was going on.”
Detective Snowden said the elder Robinson also has a history of drug-related offenses.
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