A routine red-light violation on Springfield’s State Street turned into a felony weapons and drug bust Wednesday night, after officers say they found a loaded firearm, heroin, crack-cocaine and thousands of dollars in cash inside a car that also carried a 1-year-old child. Two adults, including one man with a prior gun arrest on the same street, are now facing a long list of charges.
According to the Springfield Police Department, officers were on patrol around 8:10 p.m. Wednesday when they saw a vehicle blow through a red light at State and Main streets. When officers pulled the car over on the 100 block of State Street, they found 29-year-old Kimberly Correa of Springfield behind the wheel and 22-year-old Josiaha Ramos, also of Springfield, in the front passenger seat. Neither had a driver’s license, and neither was wearing a seatbelt, police said, and the vehicle was slated to be towed since no occupant was licensed to drive it.
Police say a search of the vehicle turned up heroin and crack-cocaine hidden under the passenger seat, along with a backpack sitting next to the child’s car seat. That backpack, according to the department’s account, held a loaded firearm and cash. Officers reported seizing 134 bags of heroin, 56 vials of crack-cocaine, marijuana and more than $2,700 in cash from the vehicle. Additional cash and marijuana were found on Ramos during booking, police said. The 1-year-old was released to a family friend, per the department’s post.
A Growing List of Charges for Both Adults
Ramos was charged with possession of a firearm without a license as a subsequent offense, possession of a loaded firearm without a license, possession of a large-capacity feeding device, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, possession with intent to distribute a Class A drug, possession with intent to distribute a Class B drug, reckless endangerment of a child and a seatbelt violation, according to police. Correa faces charges of unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, failure to stop at a red light, possession of a loaded firearm without a license, possession of a large-capacity feeding device, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, reckless endangerment of a child and a seatbelt violation.
The child endangerment charges against both Correa and Ramos stem from Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 265, Section 13L, which applies when someone wantonly or recklessly creates a substantial risk of serious bodily injury to a minor and carries up to two and a half years in jail, according to Mass.gov. Prosecutors bringing that charge must show the person was actually aware of the risk and disregarded it. It remains unknown whether the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families has opened a separate child welfare inquiry, or whether bail was set for either defendant at arraignment.
Why Ramos Faces a Steeper Charge This Time
The “subsequent offense” language attached to Ramos’s firearm charge traces back to a May 2025 arrest, when Springfield police stopped him on the 600 block of State Street after a foot chase and recovered a handgun in his pants along with an AR-style rifle carrying a 30-round magazine in the car, according to Newport Dispatch. That prior case is why he now faces heightened exposure. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 269, Section 10 imposes mandatory minimum prison sentences for unlicensed firearm possession, with even steeper mandatory minimums for second and subsequent offenses, per Rusconi Law. A first-time offense alone carries a mandatory 18-month minimum.
The large-capacity magazine charge against both Correa and Ramos also carries serious weight under state law. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 269, Section 10(m) makes possessing a feeding device holding more than 10 rounds for a rifle, or five for a handgun, punishable by up to 10 years in state prison, according to Milligan & Higgins. Meanwhile, the drug charges carry their own steep penalties: heroin is classified as a Class A substance under state law, with intent-to-distribute convictions punishable by up to 10 years in prison, while crack-cocaine, a Class B substance, carries the same maximum sentence for distribution offenses.
State Street's Long History With Gun and Drug Enforcement
Wednesday’s stop is only the latest in a string of firearm and drug seizures along the 0-100 block of State Street, a downtown corridor near Riverfront Park that has repeatedly drawn police attention. Officers recovered oxycodone and a loaded firearm there in August 2022, and a loaded large-capacity weapon during a September 2024 enforcement detail. The corridor has also seen violence tied to gun investigations — in June 2024, a Springfield officer was shot in the face near State Street and Hunter Place while searching for suspects who had fired at Firearms Investigation Unit detectives, according to the police department, and the officer underwent emergency surgery to save his eye.
The department’s specialized Firearms Investigation Unit, created in July 2021 after Springfield disbanded its narcotics bureau, recovered a record 164 illegal firearms in 2025 alone and more than 710 since its founding. Citywide, officers seized 347 illegal firearms in 2025, following 313 in 2024 and 348 in 2023 — a sustained pace far above the 255 firearms seized in 2021. Wednesday’s arrests add to a pattern Hoodline has tracked repeatedly this year, with similar traffic-stop busts involving guns, drugs and young occupants surfacing across the city in recent months.
Whether federal firearms or drug trafficking charges will be referred against Ramos given his prior arrest remains an open question, as does the status of any child welfare review involving the 1-year-old. For now, both Correa and Ramos face the state charges filed by Springfield police following Wednesday night’s stop.
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