Two Arrested for Local Holdups

A rash of robberies in downtown Boston and the North End resulted in the arrest of a white and black male on the charge of unarmed robbery and armed robbery.

In a little more than 15 hours Richard Puopolo, 27 of Cleveland Place, North End and Carlos Venable, 43 of Boston allegedly held up four places between 4 PM on Saturday, December 21 and Sunday, December 22. Both were arraigned in court on December 23.

According to a District A-1 Boston police report at 8:33 PM offices responded to Cleveland Place on December 22 for an individual identified as Richard Puopolo to turn himself into police after seeing that he was wanted by authorities as seen in an alert issued by Boston Police Department on BPD News.

After being positively identified, Puopolo was arrested and additionally charges with possession of Class E, drugs.

The report also indicates that it 10:32 PM on December 22, offices while on patrol in the area of the Chinatown/Theater District recognized and positively identified Venable as a wanted suspect in connection with the local commercial business robberies. He was placed under arrest without incident.

Reportedly, in at least two of the cases, one of the men, mentioned he was armed but no weapons were shown.

The holdups took place at: Venice Convenience Store on Cooper Street, Salem Market on Salem Street, Starbucks on Atlantic Avenue, 7-Eleven on East India Row and State Street.

Boston detectives and police officers were commended and all the media were thanked for their assistance in getting out the photo/video to the public.