Thanks to the efforts from Springfield Police Officers assigned to the Ordinance Unit under the direction of Sgt. William Catellier, Officers Andrew Normand and Bernice Burgos, with the assistance from Detective Mendez-Vasquez, Rafael Rivera-Vasquez of Springfield is being charged with 8 criminal counts of illegal dumping at seven locations across the city.
The locations within the city include: 11 Harvey Street (50 tires), 23 Cadwell Drive (35-40 tires), Morris Street (2 times, 108 tires), 11 King Street (75 tires), Spruce St. at Central Street (122 tires), Windsor Street at Pine Street (45-50 tires) and 1377 Liberty Street (50 tires). In total, over 485 tires were dumped by the suspect.
In addition to the dumping charges, Rivera-Vasquez was also recently arrested on the 0-100 block of Beech Street for:
- Operating a Motor Vehicle without a License
- Unregistered Motor Vehicle
- Uninsured Motor Vehicle
- Number Plate Violation
Mayor Sarno states, “Simply put, tremendous work by our brave and dedicated Springfield Police Department. Special thanks and a shoutout to the Clean City team, who noticed that this was not an isolated incident but a habitual offender that was illegally dumping enough tires in our city to open a used tire store – over 500 tires! The Clean City team promptly notified our police officers who began their investigation and were able to connect and identify the suspect and charged him accordingly, and if that was bad enough, this habitual offender was committing these crimes driving without a license and with an unregistered and uninsured vehicle. Three strikes and he’s out. I, along with our residents and businesses, now call upon the courts to do their job and hold this blatant illegal dumper accountable for thinking that they can use our Springfield as their personal dumping ground. I will not stand for this. We are going to remain vigilant to ensure everyone understands illegal dumping will not be tolerated in the city of Springfield and we will go after these individuals to the full extent of the law.”
“Our Ordinance Unit did an excellent job identifying and apprehending this suspect while he was believed to have been scouting a future illegal dumping site. This suspect is alleged to have been dumping tires on private property all over the city and at Bondi’s Island. This quality of life issue quickly can become extremely costly for the property owner. We hope the courts take these charges seriously as they would not want their own lawns covered with upwards of 100 tires. Now we need to start making sure our businesses who deal with tires are disposing of them properly,” said Springfield Police Superintendent Cheryl Clapprood.