Inside the Offices of Power: When a Gov’s Aide Becomes a Cocaine Courier
The corridors of Massachusetts state power aren’t supposed to double as drop sites for cartel-grade cocaine. Yet that’s exactly what prosecutors say happened when LaMar Cook—deputy director in Gov. Maura Healey’s western Massachusetts office—accepted parcels that turned out to be bricks stamped “GOLD,” part of an alleged trafficking pipeline moving multi-kilo loads straight into a state office building.
Cook’s public bio read like policy-world boilerplate: community liaison, face of outreach, all access and uplift. Court filings paint a different picture: controlled deliveries, suspicious packages routed to government addresses, and a pattern that allegedly stretched back to his prior workplace at Hotel UMass. The arrest unfolded after investigators watched the packages move through the system, then executed a sting inside the Springfield State Office Building—about as on-the-nose as it gets for “state capture.”
The administration terminated Cook the day he was arraigned and called the conduct “unacceptable” and a “breach of public trust.” That’s fair. But the issue is bigger than one staffer gone rogue. When a senior aide can funnel dope through government mailrooms, that’s not just personal corruption—it’s an institutional vulnerability. Background checks missed something. Internal controls didn’t trip. And access—keys, badges, credibility—became the perfect cover.
This is what happens when proximity to power is treated as a character reference. The job gives you a title, a building, and a reason to be anywhere. The system assumes the badge is the vetting. It isn’t. If anything, it’s the camouflage.
For Massachusetts voters—and for anyone who still believes government is a high-trust enterprise—the takeaway is uncomfortable: even “normal” offices can be leveraged like nodes in a supply chain when oversight is performative. You don’t need a dirty cop when you have a clean-looking pass holder. You don’t need a tunnel when the front door is open.
The lesson writes itself. Institutions that rely on vibe checks and résumés will always miss what logistics never do: routes, volumes, and repetition. If the Commonwealth wants to close this hole, it needs more than a press statement. It needs hard controls on package routing, real-time auditing on deliveries to secure sites, periodic access re-verification, and a simple rule: the closer you are to the governor’s seal, the more your convenience yields to operational security. That’s not paranoia. That’s adulthood.
Citations
- The Boston Globe – “A state office sting and bricks of cocaine labeled ‘GOLD’: Arrest of Healey aide ‘like something out of a movie’” (October 31, 2025)
- Western Mass News – “Court documents reveal how LaMar Cook operated his alleged drug trafficking scheme” (October 30, 2025)
- CBS Boston – “Staffer for Massachusetts Governor Fired After Arrest on Cocaine and Gun Charges in Springfield” (October 30, 2025)
- Boston 25 News – “Member of Mass. Gov. Healey’s staff fired following drug trafficking arrest” (October 29, 2025)
- Hampden District Attorney’s Office – “Hampden District Attorney’s Office Announces Narcotics Arrest” (October 29, 2025)
- WCVB (5 Investigates) – “Mass. Gov. Healey staffer charged with trafficking cocaine” (October 29, 2025)