SACO, Maine — Numerous people are facing drug charges after a search warrant was executed at a Saco motel on Thursday, according to police.
Peter Mador, supervisor for the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency’s York County division, said in a news release Friday agents had been conducting an investigation of drug trafficking in the Saco and Old Orchard Beach areas for several months.
Among those arrested, according to Mador, were Ruanita Davis, 21, and Joshua Crespo, 21, both of Brooklyn, N.Y., for aggravated trafficking in heroin and crack cocaine.
Mador said Davis and Crespo had rented a motel room in Saco on July 17, and agents were tipped off that Davis was actively selling drugs in Saco and Old Orchard Beach.
Following the arrest, 11.1 grams of crack cocaine, 39.4 grams of heroin and several thousand dollars in cash were recovered from the motel room. Members of the Saco police department and a state police K-9 unit aided in the arrest.
Davis and Crespo were booked into the York County Jail, where bail was set at $10,000 for each.
In addition to the New Yorkers, three other people were also arrested in the wake of the investigation, all for trafficking drugs in the Saco-Old Orchard area, according to Mador.
Kristen Calvo, 30, of Old Orchard was charged with aggravated trafficking in crack cocaine; Laura Palokovic, 45, also of Old Orchard, is facing a charge of unlawful trafficking in crack cocaine and Conetta Phillips, 30, of Brooklyn is looking at a charge of aggravated trafficking in crack cocaine.
All three suspects remain remain at the York County Jail. Mador said the arrests of that trio resulted in the seizure of crack cocaine and heroin with a street value of $1,000, along with several thousand dollars in cash.
Mador expects more arrests to be made in the case.
Keep up the good work MDEA!
To what avail? When will people realize that the War on Drugs will never come to an end via the criminal justice system?
Maybe not but we gotta keep trying. Can’t just let them supply everyone with drugs. Think about it.
If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results, then doing the same thing over and over expecting nothing to change is the definition of stupidity. The lock ’em approach to drug regulation has failed spectacularly – drugs are more common and cheaper than ever.
Legalize, regulate and tax. Drugs are too dangerous to be unregulated.
well by your logic then we should legalize robbing a bank,murdering someone,we keep arresting murderers and bank robbers yet people still murder people still rob banks…
There is a huge difference between drug dealing and the crimes you mention – drug dealing has no victim; both parties enter into the transaction willingly. The crimes you mention have a victim. Additionally, since non-drug crime is at a 40 year low, it seems that when you lock up bank robbers or murderers there is no rush to take their place. When you arrest a drug dealer the first thing the competition does is move to take over the dealers customers.
It may be a never ending battle, but yet a battle that needs to be fought every day…good job to all LE involved..and yep, we all know as LE’s that it never ends with “this pinch”. We get up everyday and start all over again…we keep fighting for all of our people….imagine if we just gave up? Let these dirtbags just sell there poison???….I think we deserve a little credit for dealing with the scum of the earth that we deal with EVER DAY…for you and your’s…….thanks for the support…
Each person taken down is one less on the streets, even if for a little bit. This is what it takes to get going on getting rid of this
crap…in my opinion!
My opinion too!!
“Each person taken down is one less on the streets, even if for a little bit. This is what it takes to get going on getting rid of this crap”
We’ve been throwing people in jail for drugs for almost 100 years. We’ve escalated it to a War on (Some) Drugs for the last 40. As a result, the US has more people in prison – both per capita and in sheer numbers – than any other nation on Earth. Let that sink in – the bastion of liberty has imprisoned more people than dictatorial, totalitarian nations like China, Iran and North Korea, largely because of drug prohibition.And if it hasn’t worked over than last hundred years, why would it start working now?
Kent Scheidegger,
legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation in California,
said the high prison numbers represented a proper response to the crime
problem in the United States. Locking up more criminals has contributed
to lower crime rates, he said.
You have to start somewheres.
I would hope 40 years is enough of a “start” for you. Face it, we’ve pressed “start” already and there’s no “off” button in the foreseeable future.
Problem is, there’s too much money made by a small percentage of people by continuing this immoral law that ignorance is spread to Americans willing to eat it up, such as yourself.
The truth however, is that this “War on Drugs” is truly a war on the rights of even the people who support it.
Just a single example case in point, our own state of Maine is the only state to offer “bail checks”; in which the residence of someone out on bail can be checked at any time to determine if that person is in compliance with their bail conditions (such as possession of drugs). Someone out on bail is not necessarily guilty! Don’t forget the false alarms by police dogs next time you choose to exercise your 4th Amendment “rights”.
Oh, but by all means, continue supporting an un-winnable war that actually isn’t intended to benefit YOU at all.
So your answer is to legalize all drugs? How is that going to fix anything?
Legalize, regulate and tax. Legalize all currently illegal substances. Regulate using the current model for alcohol and tobacco as a starting point. Allow pharmacies to sell them behind the counter to adults at customer request, as is done with things like Paregoric and cold medicine. Tax the transaction heavily, as we do with alcohol and tobacco. Use the tax receipts to fund drug treatment programs for addicts who wish to quit.
Like to argue much? I was giving my opinion that everything
has to start somewhere.