Two former New Bedford informants tell shocking stories. The first: a woman who didn’t even know she was being used as an informant by the cop she was sleeping with. The second: a man who was Paul Oliveira’s informant decades ago and who knows – better than anyone – how the police chief exploits the secrecy of this world. Spotlight reporters Dugan Arnett and Andrew Ryan try to get answers and accountability. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What warnings should listeners heed before this episode?
Before we begin, this story includes strong language and descriptions of violence. Please take care when listening.
I was on drugs and my life was spiraling out of control. You know, who's going to believe me over a police officer?
Carly Medeiros is the very first New Bedford informant I reported on.
A snitch is by far the worst thing you can be called. I wouldn't doubt it if there's a few people that if they seen me, they wouldn't mind putting a bullet in me.
Carly's story came to my attention three years ago when an email she sent landed in my inbox. The subject line, written in all caps, was I NEED HELP.
It's too long to tell the story. I wanted to start from the beginning, like how I lost my dad and the whole thing. It's just so long. It's such a long story.
Carly grew up in New Bedford, and like so many others, her dad worked on the water. That's my dad. She points to a cherished photo of him, posing in front of a boat.
There, he got to be like in his late 30s. Hard life. He was a fisherman. He looks like he was about 40, 50 there, right? He does. That's his cousin right there.
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Chapter 2: What led Carly Medeiros into the world of informants?
Carly and her dad were close. And when he died in his early 50s, she was devastated. To cope, she started using drugs. Eventually, she turned to heroin. By the summer of 2014, she was deep into addiction. And that's when she met a cop named Jared Lucas. He approached her one day while she was leaving the beach and started flirting.
Initially, I just felt like he wanted me. That's what I felt in the beginning, like he wanted me.
She was right. And even though she was engaged at the time, Carly and Lucas, who was a New Bedford detective, started sleeping together.
And the more we had contact with each other, the further our relationship got deeper, I realized something's not right here.
Carly says that Lucas would always steer the conversation toward her fiancé, Stephen Ortiz, an alleged drug dealer, who she was cheating on with a New Bedford police officer.
He would ask me, like, oh, who is he with today? Like, oh, is he going to meet his dude today? And I'm like, what dude are you talking about? And what does he do at the casino when he goes to the casino? What does he talk to his lawyer about? I don't know. Who's in his mother's house all day? Why do you care about that? Why are you even asking me these questions?
It has nothing to do with anything going on between me and you.
It got so intense that Carly started to feel like Lucas was obsessed with her fiancé.
The only way I can honestly explain it is it felt like he was secretly in love with Stephen. It was just all about Stephen all the time.
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Chapter 3: How did Carly's relationship with a police officer impact her life?
Yeah. There are other people he thinks about, too. Not hardened criminals deep in the drug world.
They were working-class people and good people. More than a majority are, I don't want to say innocent victims, but they're civilians who don't deserve the punishment or the treatment or the treachery of getting entangled in this fucked up game.
Cops want to hold on to their CIs. They're valuable and help with their careers. Getting out is not always in the cards. But it didn't take long before Russ started to want out.
I'm looking for an exit at this point.
Oliveira told Russ he could help him make a clean break. But not before Russ helped him make one last bust. I can't get into the details because they might give away Russ's identity. But I know that Russ did help Oliveira pull off a big arrest. I found police files and court records to back up his story. And afterward, Russ waited for Oliveira to hold up his end of the bargain. But he didn't.
I wish I could tell you more of the specifics here, but just understand that Russ says he felt betrayed.
It's all my fault. I was young, but still knew right from wrong. But as I look back, you know, it was pressure, you know, pressure to keep going, pressure to perform. And like a lot of it, you know, I felt like I had done enough that I could have bought myself some safe time, but it was never enough.
Russ did eventually get out. Not with any help from Oliveira, but on his own. He made a bunch of money, cashed in his chips, and left New Bedford behind. Russ was never charged for any of the drug crimes he says he committed with Oliveira's knowledge.
I was a piece of shit, man. I did all this for nothing. And it's a waste of a life, to be honest. It's tough. It is, man. I regret it. And I wish, you know, I live in shame a lot of times because of it.
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Chapter 4: What shocking event occurred on Stephen's birthday?
What makes him better than me?
In 2021, before my story came to light, Jared Lucas retired from the New Bedford Police Department. He was only in his 30s at the time. Lucas didn't respond to the allegations put forth in our reporting. He currently collects a pension of about $60,000 a year. Carly says she spoke out because she wanted accountability. And since she went public with her story, there have been consequences.
After that Franks hearing, a superior court judge excoriated Lucas for gross misconduct. The judge ruled that much of the evidence in the case against Martinez was essentially tainted and couldn't be used against him. Last summer, after almost three years in jail, Miguel Martinez walked free. But his case might just be the first domino to fall.
Today, Carly and her original partner, Stephen Ortiz, are back together, engaged again. And Stephen's lawyers are heading to court in a few weeks to argue that the evidence against him should also be dismissed. Of course, prosecutors don't want to drop the case against a man they say is at the center of a major drug trafficking ring. But if it does go forward, it could reveal even more misconduct.
When Stephen Ortiz's next court date comes up, the Globe will be there. The man in charge when Jared Lucas retired was Police Chief Paul Oliveira. Oliveira condemned Lucas' behavior as disappointing and unethical.
In a statement back in 2023, he said, quote, Lucas's egregious behavior while in our employment is an anomaly and does not reflect the true caliber of the men and women of the New Bedford Police Department. But Oliveira said then that his hands were tied, that disciplining Lucas was impossible because he'd already left the department.
I've been trying for nearly three years to get an interview with Paul Oliveira. Yeah, my name is Dugan Arnett. I'm a writer at the Boston Globe. Sent him an email yesterday about a story that we're preparing to publish. Before this podcast dropped, I tried multiple times to reach the police chief. All right, Westport, Massachusetts, home of Paul Oliveira.
It's the fifth day that we've tried to reach out. Haven't heard anything. Sent a detailed list of questions the other day. Oliveira lives a few miles outside New Bedford in a sprawling house at the end of a dead-end street. So obviously just giving him the chance to respond, we're stopping by his house to see if he wants to talk.
After all the official channels failed, my colleague Andrew Ryan and I went straight to the source.
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