Two men were arrested on felony drug charges Tuesday as they were stepping off the ferry in Vineyard Haven.

The Martha’s Vineyard Drug Task Force, working in conjunction with the Tisbury and Massachusetts State Police, arrested Jose Luis Arais, 21, of Jamaica Plain, and Wilken Ariaz Baez, 27. Both men were charged with trafficking class A heroin, trafficking class B cocaine and conspiracy.

Mr. Baez initially provided a false identification to police; police learned his true identity after running his fingerprints through the FBI database.

An aerial drug sweep of the Island this month by the Massachusetts State Police and federal Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) task force found 169 illegal marijuana plants. Authorities are still investigating who planted the crops and have yet to make any arrests or issue summonses.

“There will be charges, maybe this week,” said state police Sergeant Jeff Stone, also head of the Martha’s Vineyard Drug Task Force. “But as of right now the investigation is ongoing.”

Two Island men were arrested this week in connection with a nearly 10-month investigation into a large-scale drug trafficking operation by the federal Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and the Martha’s Vineyard Drug Task Force. The arrests led to search warrants being issued in three different states.

Sean Herrmann, 31, was arrested by a federal drug enforcement task force at his residence in East Greenbush, N.Y. last Wednesday on federal charges of drug possession and distribution, DEA special agent Erin McKenzie-Mulvey said.

Six people — three from the same Vineyard Haven family — were arrested on felony drug charges earlier this week following one of the largest heroin busts in Island history.

Members of the Martha’s Vineyard Drug Task force executed a search warrant at the Garde home on Spring street in Vineyard Haven just after 6 p.m. Tuesday and seized nearly $70,000 in heroin, cash and other drugs. Officers arrested three members of the Garde family and three other suspects for alledgedly running a drug operation out of the home.

Oak Bluffs police on Saturday arrested a Maine man for allegedly selling cocaine at downtown bars over the past few weeks. Oak Bluffs officers assigned to the Martha’s Vineyard Drug Task Force learned that Darren Bennett, 26, was selling cocaine at various downtown bars and prepared a search warrant based on their investigation.

Three separate police investigations have led to several major drug
arrests, the Martha's Vineyard Drug Task Force announced this
week.

An Oak Bluffs man was arrested Sunday at the Stop & Shop in
Vineyard Haven, while two separate incidents on Tuesday and Wednesday
led to the arrest of three others. All have been charged with various
drug-related crimes.