Great Barrington — A fictitious Facebook account used as part of a larger narcotics investigation led to the Monday (August 10) arrest of a 22-year-old Great Barrington man who police say is a heroin user and dealer.
Matthew Bleau, of State Road, was charged with several drug violations, including intending to sell fake heroin after a Great Barrington Police officer, posing on Facebook as an interested buyer, set up a sting operation at the rest stop next to the Butternut Ski Area entrance off State Road.
Bleau was arraigned on Thursday (August 13) in Southern Berkshire District Court.
Police say they found a needle in one of Bleau’s pockets and “some empty heroin bags in the other.” The bags were reportedly labeled “New World,” and contained remnants of a “brown powder substance” that upon later testing turned out not to be heroin.
Bleau was also charged with resisting arrest after a brief struggle, according to police. Court records show that Bleau has in the past been charged with several different misdemeanors, but all were dismissed.
But it is the way police were led to Bleau that thickens the plot, especially in a county that is struggling to contain rampant heroin abuse, partly because it’s so cheap.
Early this month, an officer on routine patrol on State Road spotted Bleau, who “appeared to be nervous,” at the end of his driveway. The officer said he knew Bleau was a “heroin addict” because he had been called to the home before.
The officer, who also works with the Berkshire County Drug Task Force, said that he saw a car with New York plates stop near Bleau, and that Bleau exchanged something with the passenger. The car headed west on State Road, and the officer followed it to Stockbridge Road. The driver, Dakota Sandagato, 21, of Craryville, was found to have a suspended license and was arrested and later charged on that offense, then released until a future court appearance.
The passenger, Gabriel Mateo of Pittsfield, was kept at the scene and questioned.
Meanwhile, another officer who also works with the drug task force said that he had recently been told that that these two “are involved in the distribution of heroin throughout the Great Barrington area,” and that they “deliver heroin to the Bleau residence,” according to the police report.
Police questioned Mateo and searched the car, at one point using a K9 dog that did not sniff out drugs. But the officer said that he found about $700 in cash rolled into three wads, and three cell phones. Mateo was not charged.
Bleau was released until his next court appearance.
