HYANNIS — A 62-year-old Nantucket man is facing the possibility of decades behind bars after police say they caught him in Hyannis preparing to move a kilo of cocaine back to the island — exposing a drug pipeline quietly feeding one of Massachusetts’ most exclusive communities.
Barnstable Police arrested Edward Gillespie, 62, around 11 a.m. Thursday after an ongoing narcotics investigation flagged him as a supplier trafficking cocaine from Hyannis to Nantucket. Detectives say Gillespie was taken into custody just as he was preparing to transport the drugs across the water.
Investigators say this was no one-off deal.
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Following the arrest, police secured a search warrant for Gillespie’s Nantucket home. With help from Nantucket Police, the U.S. Coast Guard, and federal drug agents with the DEA, officers searched the residence and uncovered what they described as clear evidence of an active drug operation.
Police say the search turned up additional quantities of cocaine, 68 grams of amphetamine pills, drug-packaging materials, and roughly $10,000 in cash believed to be tied to narcotics sales.
In total, authorities seized approximately 1,141 grams of cocaine — well over a kilogram — along with the amphetamines and cash, underscoring what prosecutors say was a significant trafficking operation, not a small-time possession case.
On Friday, January 9, Gillespie was arraigned in Barnstable District Court on a charge of trafficking cocaine over 200 grams. A judge ordered him held pending a dangerousness hearing, a step typically reserved for defendants prosecutors argue pose a serious risk to the public.
The case is being prosecuted by the Cape and Islands District Attorney’s Office. Police say Gillespie’s legal trouble is far from over, with additional drug trafficking charges expected to be filed in Nantucket District Court based on the drugs seized at his island residence.
For Nantucket, better known for quiet streets, luxury homes, and summer tourists, the arrest is a blunt reminder that serious drug trafficking doesn’t stop at the ferry terminal — it rides it.