Fall River woman indicted on drug trafficking charges

FALL RIVER -- A Superior Court grand jury handed up an indictment on the first of this month charging a city woman with drug trafficking for allegedly ferrying methamphetamine from Arizona to Bristol County in a duffel bag.

Heather Gilchrest-Dawson, 43, of 163 Winter St., was indicted on a charge of trafficking more than 200 grams of methamphetamine. The indictment moves the case from Taunton District Court to Bristol County Superior Court.

Authorities allege Gilchrest-Dawson boarded a Greyhound bus in Arizona carrying a total of 357 grams of the stimulant narcotic in white duffel bag and a blue backpack, according to a news release.

A tipster alerted Fall River police that Gilchrest-Dawson was bound for Massachusetts, and sent investigators an image of her catching the bus.

The tipster also told police she would be traveling from Rhode Island to Massachusetts in a gray Nissan whose operator drives for Uber, according to the news release.

Fall River police traveled to a Providence bus station to await Gilchrest-Dawson’s arrival. Investigators spotted her getting off a bus carrying two bags.

“As passengers disembarked, detectives observed Gilchrest-Dawson wearing the same clothing and carrying the same bags, a white duffel bag and a blue backpack as in the picture,” police said.

She talked on her cell phone before getting into the back of a gray Nissan. Police followed the car as it drove onto I-95 South, then I-195 east to the Seekonk exit.

Seekonk police pulled the car over. Police armed with a warrant to search her bags allegedly found three bags of methamphetamine that weighed a combined 357 grams, according to the news release.

A date for Gilchrest-Dawson’s arraignment in Superior Court has not yet been scheduled.

Email Amanda Burke at aburke@heraldnews.com.