BANGOR, Maine — Bail for one of the three people arrested this week on felony drug charges was bumped up Friday to $1 million surety, or $250,000 cash.
By all accounts, the amount of the bail is unusually high for drug-related crimes in Penobscot County.
Bail for Ryan Orton, 27, of Hudson was set Friday during his initial court appearance at the Penobscot Judicial Center. Orton’s bail initially was set at $50,000 cash, an official with the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency said Thursday.
After his court appearance, Orton was returned to Penobscot County Jail, where he has been held since his arrest on charges of aggravated trafficking in synthetic hallucinogenic drugs, aggravated furnishing in synthetic hallucinogenic drugs, aggravated trafficking in marijuana, aggravated trafficking in psilocybin, and prohibited possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Orton was arrested Wednesday night in Hudson by the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency, with the assistance of local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, Darrell Crandall, MDEA division commander for northern Maine, said in a news release issued Thursday morning.
Also arrested in connection with the alleged drug trafficking operation were Orton’s girlfriend, Alyssa Farrington, 20, of Hudson, who was arrested Wednesday night, and Kristy Harris, 29, of Bangor, who was arrested the next day.
Farrington was charged with trafficking in synthetic hallucinogenic drugs, furnishing synthetic hallucinogenic drugs, trafficking in marijuana and trafficking in psilocybin. She has been released on $750 cash bail.
Harris was charged with aggravated trafficking in oxycodone. She remained behind bars Friday evening, a jail official confirmed. Her bail initially was set at $15,000 cash but was amended to $25,000 surety, or $5,000 cash, a jail official said.
Crandall said Thursday that the multiagency investigation began when Bangor police contacted the MDEA in the fall of 2011 saying they suspected Orton of selling drugs. Over the next several months, MDEA agents purchased different types of drugs — including MDPV, a component of bath salts — from Orton, he said.
Agents also did surveillance to learn Orton’s routines, identified his associates and determined the MDPV was being illegally imported from China, Crandall said.
Among the items seized from the three suspects during raids at homes in Hudson and Bangor, searches at a cemetery in Hudson, and a storage locker in Newburgh were more than four pounds of bath salts, more than a pound of marijuana, more than 7 pounds of psilocybin mushrooms, 316 diverted oxycodone pills, and more than 9 pounds of another substance that is yet to be identified.
Also confiscated were several semiautomatic assault rifles, two semiautomatic handguns, a 12-gauge shotgun, several hundred rounds of ammunition, stun guns, night vision equipment and military-grade ballistic body armor and several thousand in cash, Crandall said.
Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Maine State Police, the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office and the Bangor Police Department all assisted in the investigation.
More arrests are anticipated, Crandall said.
FINALLY A REASONABLE BAIL AMOUNT SET BY A SITTING JUDGE……
YES!!! Long over due!!!
Jackpot!
Look at all the semiautomatic weapons !
Thanks, NRA !
Oh yeah, and thanks DHS, for uh, spending so much money…. To keep us safe from “terrorism”…
The NRA has nothing to do with these junk rifles.
The only thing these people have in common with NRA members is a compulsion to hoard weapons for self defense. But maybe you all hold similar constitutional views as well? You display quite a bit of snobbery about the quality of their guns but surely everybody, even big time NRA gun bunnies, have to start somewhere?
If it wasn’t for the NRA these criminals would still have firearms. The law abiding citizens however would not. God bless the NRA for defending our freedom.
Exactly right!!
said well, the guns are not the bad ones ,its the people behide them
2 Sig’s and 2 ar’s junk? What exactly makes them junk? I happen to own both of them and while I do not know the brand of the ar’s the sig’s are far from junk and even if the ar’s are low end they are still god rifles.
How did you link this to DHS?
I would guess because DHS HSI participated in the investigation. He I think is looking for a place to grind his axe.
These are not the type the NRA stands up for. The NRA is an organization that fights for the rights of law abiding citizens. If DHS was not the one who spent the money to protect against “terrorism” who do you suppose would? Sounds like a comment from an uninformed individual that just needs to complain. I would also assume that by putting quotation marks around the word terrorism that you may be implying that it does not exist.
Hate to tell you but guys like this don’t go to NRA they go to Obama and Eric Holder!
Big Government at it again. Let the black market regulate itself!!!
LOL
Sounds to me like you know a little too much about the Black Market. Drugs run by the government isnt ANY better, but i wouldnt argue that we need to leave the dealers and suppliers alone….Lets stick them and the politicians in a small room and see which comes out on top.
Bet this case goes Federal. High bail to keep him in jail while they get the case in order. Better sentences in federal court all around especially felon with a gun or two, three, four…….
A link to a presentation from the Down East Emergency Medicine institute on
Bath Salts. History, Effects, Clinical Presentation and Treatment. For Police,
Fire, EMS, Physicians and nurses. Informational and free to share with
others
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAc6j0df4pE
Doc Bowie
Hey thanks man, I was pretty inbetween on the whole bath salts arguement, but after that presentation I’m starting to think they might be bad..
Sad to see that Orrin guy get prison time but selling drugs is not a job or career .
You can’t get away with selling large quantities of narcotics in Maine… Too many undercovers and people flipping on eachother for small charges.
WHOA is my only comment
I bet their mamas are proud of them.
7 pounds of mushrooms? What a trip!
Should read ` assault style rifles ‘. Note that you can usually fire just one rifle at a time, gun haters.
MDEA…… Go get-um’ …….
Hey, according to posters on this board, they had pot so they are really just fun loving people and should be let go.
The three stooges, live and in color……wow, talk about the “Horrible’s Parade”…..