An alleged Somerville drug dealer hoping to unload a ``large shipment'' of pills thought he was calling an old connection Wednesday night. What he got instead was Boston City Council President Michael Flaherty on the line - and a court appearance yesterday on drug-peddling charges.
``It was a sharp move on Councilman Flaherty's part to play along with this guy,'' police Commissioner Kathleen M. O'Toole said yesterday, shortly after the alleged dealer, John Murphy, 32, was arraigned at South Boston District Court.
According to Flaherty, the sting was set up after he received a call on his new cell phone from an unrecognized number late Wednesday afternoon.
As Flaherty tells it, the conversation went like this:
``What's up? It's Murph,'' the caller said.
Flaherty, who grew up in South Boston and still lives there, said he naturally responded by asking, ``Which Murph?''
``John Murphy,'' the caller said. ``I just got a big shipment. Klonopins.''
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