Police say one-man North End crime wave arrested after three armed robberies

Boston Police report officers arrested a man wanted for three armed robberies this week - after first watching him conduct several drug transactions on Salem Street Friday night.

Police say Dante Mirabella, 53, first robbed somebody on Commercial Street at Henchman Street around 12:25 a.m. on Wednesday, then robbed somebody else on Merrimac Street across from the Brooke Courthouse around 10:50 p.m. on Wednesday. He then he held up Bob's Grocery on Endicott Street around 6:50 p.m. on Thursday, police say, adding:

All three incidents described the same suspect removing a firearm from his waistband before demanding cash from the victims and fleeing the area.

Police say officers quickly zeroed in on Mirabella as a suspect and found him on Salem Street near Charter Street around 9 p.m. on Friday.

Officers continued their surveillance of the male, further observing him engaged in multiple hand to hand drug transactions in the area of 190 Salem Street in the North End before getting on a bicycle and fleeing the area. Officers followed the male to the area of Charter Street and Jackson Avenue where they observed him enter the passenger’s side of an unoccupied parked motor vehicle. Officers observed the male remove an item from his back waistband and place it in his front waistband. Officers immediately recognized the item to be a firearm and quickly approached the suspect. Officers ordered the male out of the vehicle and attempted to secure the firearm, but during the process, the suspect grabbed a hold of the firearm’s handle in an attempt to remove it. Officers were able to take the firearm from the suspect before placing him under arrest. Officers recovered a Highpoint .380 caliber firearm loaded with seven rounds of live ammunition.

Mirabella faces three counts of armed robbery as well as unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of a loaded firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition and firearm violation with prior violent/drug-crime conviction, police say.

Innocent, etc.