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Massachusetts dad charged after boy brings heroin bag with Spider-Man label to school, police say

HOLYOKE, Mass. — A Massachusetts father was arrested last week after police said his young son brought heroin in a bag with a Spider-Man label to his Holyoke elementary school.

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According to the Daily Hampshire Gazette and WWLP-TV, authorities charged Benny Garcia, 29, of Holyoke, with drug possession and reckless endangerment after an H.B. Lawrence Elementary School kindergarten teacher saw the 5-year-old with the Spider-Man-stamped bag Thursday morning. The teacher said the boy claimed that eating or tasting the substance, which he found in his family's living room, transforms him into the iconic superhero, the Gazette reported.

First responders took the boy to a nearby hospital, where doctors examined him, Holyoke police said. He appeared to be unhurt, the Gazette reported. Authorities said they weren't sure whether the child, who had placed the sealed baggie in his mouth, ended up ingesting any of the drug, according to the newspaper.

Investigators later searched the boy's home and found Garcia sleeping, police said. Authorities seized more than 170 bags of heroin and 48 bags of cocaine from the apartment, the Gazette reported.

Garcia, who pleaded not guilty to his charges, remains in jail without bond, the news outlets reported. The boy and another child are now in the care of the Department of Children and Families, authorities said.

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