Pizza Shop Owner Arraigned on Drug Charges

– Allison Goldsberry

A Medford pizza shop owner has been arraigned following an indictment on a drug trafficking charge in connection with an August arrest, during which $750,000 worth of high-grade marijuana was found in his possession, according to Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone.

Nikita Yanakopulos, 34, of Medford, was arraigned Thursday in Middlesex Superior Court in Woburn on one count of trafficking marijuana over 100 pounds. Middlesex Superior Court Clerk Magistrate Michael Sullivan ordered Yanakopulos held on $10,000 cash bail with the condition that he surrenders his passport to the Probation Department.

Yanakopulos pleaded not guilty, according to a spokesperson for DA Leone.

His next court date is February 22 for a pretrial conference.

Yanakopulos was arrested on August 26 and arraigned on August 29 in Malden District Court on a charge of trafficking marijuana. He also pleaded not guilty at that time to the charge.

According to information released by DA Leone, authorities received information that Yanakopulos, owner of Pinky’s Famous Pizza in Medford, was expected to receive a large shipment of marijuana in Everett back in August. On August 26, authorities conducted surveillance on Yanakopulos on Route 16 in Everett in which they saw him in a white pickup truck in a parking lot at 82 Boston Street in Everett. They saw Yanakopulos allegedly loading several cardboard boxes into the back cargo area of his truck before driving away.

Authorities followed Yanakopulos and approached him in his truck while he was stopped at a drive-thru restaurant on Revere Beach Parkway in Everett. According to DA Leone, police had probable cause that the boxes contained marijuana so Yanakopulos was placed under arrest. Following a search of Yanakopulos and his car, authorities confiscated approximately 250 pounds of high-grade marijuana hidden in eleven cardboard boxes, containing 213 plastic bags of marijuana, valued at over three-quarters of a million dollars. Additionally, authorities seized over $2,000.

This is not the first time Pinky’s has been in the news. Last March the pizza shop closed briefly without notice for alleged “non-compliance” with labor laws.

Pinky’s is a popular pizza place that prides itself on its gourmet ingredients.