Fall River police detectives searching a home on East Main Street on Monday, October 26, found two loaded handguns and about 35 grams of suspected fentanyl and arrested a 20-year-old man on gun and drug charges, the Fall River Police Department said in an account published on Tuesday by WBSM and the Fall River Reporter. The search, in the 200 block of East Main Street, was carried out under a warrant that targeted Aysin Thompson, 20, police said.

Source: WBSM via South Coast 360

Detectives from the department's Community Action and Suppression Team, known as CAST, carried out the search warrant, police said. The Fall River Reporter's account adds that the department's Emergency Services Unit helped with the operation. Thompson was the target of the warrant, according to police, and he was arrested and taken to the police station for booking.

What police say was found inside

Inside the home, police said, detectives found a loaded Glock 17 Gen 4 9mm handgun fitted with a 19-round magazine, a Rock Island Armory Model 200 .38 Special revolver loaded with five rounds, fifteen more rounds of 9mm ammunition, about 35 grams of suspected fentanyl, and $110 in cash. The fentanyl is described by police as suspected fentanyl; the charge filed uses the trafficking threshold of 18 grams or more, and the amount police say they found is nearly double that threshold.

Thompson was booked on charges of possession of a large capacity firearm, improper storage of a large capacity firearm, two counts of possession of a firearm without a firearm identification card, improper storage of a firearm, possession of ammunition without a firearm identification card, trafficking 18 grams or more of fentanyl, and possession of a large capacity firearm during a felony, police said. These are allegations set out by police; Thompson is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.

Arraignment: not guilty plea, held without bail

Thompson was arraigned on Tuesday, October 27, in Fall River District Court, where he pleaded not guilty and was held without bail, the Fall River Reporter reported. A further hearing was set for Wednesday, October 28 — the next step in the case, at which the court is expected to address his detention and the charges will begin moving through the district court process.

What the charges carry under Massachusetts law

Trafficking in fentanyl carries a mandatory minimum sentence of three and a half years in state prison under Chapter 94C, Section 32E of the Massachusetts General Laws. Knowingly having a large capacity firearm or feeding device without a license to carry is punishable by two and a half to ten years in state prison under Chapter 269, Section 10(m), and that sentence may not be reduced below one year or suspended.

Having a large capacity firearm while committing an offense that can be punished by state prison time adds at least ten years in state prison on top of the penalty for that offense, under Chapter 265, Section 18B. The state's safe storage law, Chapter 140, Section 131L, requires a gun that is not being carried or controlled by its owner or another lawful user to be kept in a locked container or fitted with a working safety lock; for a large capacity weapon a violation carries a fine of $2,000 to $15,000, one and a half to twelve years in prison, or both, and for other guns a fine of $1,000 to $7,500, up to one and a half years, or both.

A second gun arrest the same day

The East Main Street search was one of two gun arrests the CAST unit made on Monday, police said. The same day, detectives stopped an SUV as part of an ongoing firearm investigation, found a rifle and 95 rounds of ammunition, and charged a 31-year-old man. Police did not name that man in the account of the second arrest published alongside Thompson's case.

For Fall River residents, the case is a street-level picture of the fentanyl trade that Massachusetts prosecutors and police say drives overdose deaths across the South Coast: a single home search that, on the police account, combined a trafficking-weight quantity of suspected fentanyl with two loaded, unlawfully held handguns. Police asked anyone with information to call the department's tip line at 508-672-TIPS (8477), the Fall River Reporter reported.