Owner of Pinky's Pizza Arrested with $750k in Marijuana

A local pizza shop owner faces a drug trafficking charge after police caught him with over $750,000 worth of marijuana, prosecutors said.

Nikita Yanakopulos, 34, of Medford was arrested on Boston Street in Everett on Aug. 26 after investigators watched him load boxes full of marijuana into the back of his pick-up truck, according to a press release from district attorney Gerry Leone.

Yanakopulos is the owner of Pinky's Famous Pizza on Main Street.

Investigators were tipped off that Yanakopulos would be picking up a large quantity of pot in Everett and began watching him on Route 16, prosecutors said.

He pulled into a parking lot at 82 Boston St., where police watched him load several boxes into the back of his white pick-up, the press release said. Yanakopulos was stopped at a drive through restaurant on Revere Beach Parkway where he was arrested.

Inside the boxes, investigators found about 250 pounds of high-grade marijuana in plastic bags, prosecutors said.

The arrest was part of an on-going investigation into marijuana trafficking in Middlesex County by a team made up of state police, investigators from Middlesex, Suffolk and Essex Count Suffolk County District Attorney's Office, Essex County District Attorney's Office and Federal Agents of Immigration Customs and Enforcement.