Crime & Safety
'Plume Of Smoke' Came From Car Before Mass Pike Drug Arrest
State police pulled over a Boston man along the Mass Pike in Auburn recently, later charging him with drug possession.

AUBURN, MA — State police arrested a Boston man for drug possession after a traffic stop along the Mass Pike recently — but the driver may have given himself away before troopers even met him, according to a police account.
The incident happened just after midnight on Sept. 15 near the Mass Pike and I-290 interchange south of Worcester. Police pulled the man — identified as Matthew Derat, 20 — over because of his window tints and loud exhaust pipe.
As a trooper was approaching the car, the driver rolled the window down, and that's when the trooper "observed a large plume of smoke emanate from within the vehicle," police said in a news release.
Police say they found the synthetic opioid fentanyl, cocaine and heroin in the car — and about 700 grams of suspected marijuana. There was also about $5,000 in cash in the car, police said.
Derat was arrested and charged with drug trafficking, possession of drugs with intent to distribute and having illegal window tints.