AUGUSTA, Maine — Undercover agents with the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency and local police detectives have been watching three local residents for drug activity, and on Friday executed a raid that took more than $23,000 in hard drugs off the streets.
Five people — two men from New York and three local residents — have been arrested so far, MDEA Division Commander Darrell Crandall said in a press release.
“MDEA agents and Augusta police, assisted by Waterville police, Kennebec County Sheriff’s deputies, Maine State troopers and U.S. DEA agents, executed search warrants at three locations, seizing a large quantity of illicit drugs and other evidence,” he said.
The homes raided were at 18 Edison Drive and 388 Washington Street in Augusta, as well as 43 Hulin Road in Belgrade.
“Over 550 retail bags of heroin, 6 grams of bulk heroin, 19 grams of cocaine HCL and 18 grams of cocaine base (crack) were among the items of evidence seized from the three locations,” the MDEA press release states. “The street value of the drugs seized, just during the warrants, is more than $23,000.”
James Davis, 19, of Harlem, N.Y., and Belgrade was charged with Class A aggravated trafficking in heroin, and Class B unlawful trafficking in heroin. His bail is set at $25,000.
The first charge was elevated to a Class A because police say he was dealing drugs in a school zone, Crandall said.
Terrell Washington, 23, of Bronx, N.Y., was charged with two counts of Class B unlawful trafficking in heroin. His bail is also set at $25,000.
John Wood, 31, of Augusta was charged with Class C unlawful possession of heroin and hindering apprehension. His bail was set at $10,000.
Wood was charged with hindering because “he tried to destroy evidence,” Crandall said.
Beverly Norton, 56, of Augusta was charged with two counts of Class A aggravated trafficking in heroin. Her bail is set at $15,000.
Her trafficking charge also was elevated to a Class A because police say she was dealing drugs in a school zone, Crandall said.
Amber Swift, 27, of Belgrade was charged with Class B unlawful trafficking in heroin. Her bail is set at $2,500.
The state’s Attorney General will be handling the prosecution of those charged, Crandall said.
“The investigation is far from over, and more arrests are anticipated,” he said.
good job MDEA!!
At least they are doing their part to make sure drugs stay inordinately expensive. It’s not like they are accomplishing much else with these budget draining operations. Drugs are more available, stronger and, yes, even cheaper in real dollars than we started this grand prohibition experiment a century ago. Keep on cheerleading a failed war.
Buy a bag of weed just as easy than a loaf of bread most places — in fact, it was more complicated in ’68 than it is now. This Reagan Era ‘war on drugs’ propaganda was already on a downhill slide before it came out of his vote-seeking face. Wasn’t he the same guy who introduced us to ‘The Service Economy’ and The Trickle-Down Economy?” and we’ve seen how well all that worked out.
Great thing a bunch of hard drugs got snagged off the streets, but lets don’t pretend it made a huge dent in much of anything… “God damn the Pusherman” as Steppenwolf sang… Don’t wanna seem like ‘racial profiling’ or ‘targeting’ any groups, but these folks from the Bronx and Harlem got no Earthly reason to be in Maine — yeah, right, came to open a B&B. Wouldn’t take 15 minutes for me to either get jacked up by NYPD or get shot for standing at the corners of Lenox Ave and 135th street in Harlem…
It’s gone way past being PC and polite, this is life or death. No law against ID and warrant checks on strangers…
I’m not gonna touch race or Reagenomics with a 10 foot comment here.
I will say that making hard drugs cheaper, hence more available to all, wouldn’t do much for the GDP. I usually think of Neil Young’s “Needle and the damage done” with the reason for the continuing war on hard drugs, not the crime used to afford and supply the crap.
A little bit of it in every one,
and every junkie is like a setting sun…
Agreed, it’s too easy to step off on the other aspects and leave the real problem setting in the middle of the road — drugs. They’re already here, so now what? Definitely not gonna seal-off 6000 miles of border and shoreline, or search every container ship and cargo truck and RV and commercial airliner. All the “lock ’em up and throw away the key!” sounds pretty tough — until one of ”em’ is a brother or cousin or neighbor or pal from work.
Here’s food for thought from an Baby Boomer. How about there are really influential fingers in the drug till and it’s all about controlling a part of the population? United we could stand — stoned, well, ah, what?
As a young wide eyed pulpcutter from the County, I was aware of the old opium dens, coke and tabs of acid, but only in theory. After a few years in the city and volunteering at 2 hospices I got that much needed wake up to really observing the world around. When a 32 year old junkie who I had read to for weeks asked me to play the ‘Needle’ song at her death bed while she repeated over and over “why did I do it”……. It gives one a reality check. A true story.
We can’t understand the addictive personality nor the reason they even try today’s instantly addictive stuff any more than any real or theoretical conspiracy of profiteering than we can stop the guns and miswired defective machines that shoot up some little kids.
I’m not a bleeding heart old hippy, but a realist. My profile kinda says it all.
(And no, if I had the ‘Dragon’ software, this wouldn’t be any more coherent or legible. Thanx to Disqus and its moderators, I can rant here.) ;)
Pulp-cutter? Not me, brother! I made table legs and clock-case parts and wooden shipping crates. LOL Hospice work, eh? Whew, that’s a crash course in reality right there. I applied for a spot at St Elizabeth Seton, but a different job came up.
Took a different road to get there, but awareness eventually sank in — or “Light dawned over Marblehead,” as we’d snidely remark. Buried quite a few friends and blamed it on everything except the addiction that killed them. Also knew a couple that intentionally took the quick way out — concrete bridge abutments don’t move no matter how fast the car is going. (The smell of death around me)
There’s a lot of squawk about whether addiction is a disease or not, and I keep a distance from all that — I’ll settle for a mental obsession combined with a physical compulsion. I do know it’s the only state of mind that tells people they’re okay as it kills them. “Nah, seriously, I look a lot better at 115lbs, right?” ACK! .
The usual verbal eloquence.
A finish carpenter at this time of year? I have vivid memories of secretly replenishing the oil supply to a certain candelabra!
Ya, a pulpcutter had to “help put biscuit on the table”, fillup the woodbox and empty the chamberpot before the bus…. No Boo Hoo here. Whoda thunk I’d end up here? (I’m avoiding the topic at hand}
We’ve all had our milestones of development. Mine were beer, the animalistic urge to procreate (more than happily and rewarding), while learning reality tempered with empathy. Dan Fogelberg’s “Nederland” fork in the road, Elton John’s “Skyline pigeon” to “Britain’s Got Talent’s Susan Boyle’s debut. None more though than Rowdy Yate’s remark on “Rawhide” of “I had a choice, so I took it”. Heavy stuff, huh?
I can’t decide between b.. Never mind. It’s late for this geezer and the other half just got called into Mass Gen for another 8 hr liver transplant. I’m too tired to fill out another volunteer dig app now. Egypt isn’t too safe right now anyway..
Nobody reads this far down the thread anywho
Nixon, not Reagan, started our modern “war on drugs”.
Thanks. Wasn’t quite sure about that — his wife came up with the “Just Say No!” malarkey?
25 thousand in bail is likely the profit they make on a regular basis, and the time they get is so little, that it is well worth the penalty.
How wonderful to see such large amounts of the deadly poison, heroin, off
our streets.
If these lowlife New Yorkers and Mainers love it so much , how bout
mix all there stash up in a 2 liter bottle of Moxie and they can pass it
around till its all gone.
Good to the last drop.
Hey, don’t mess with Moxie.
7 UP?
“How wonderful to see such large amounts of the deadly poison, heroin, offour streets.”
If you seriously think that is a large seizure you are sorely mistaken. That was maybe a week’s supply for these folks customers. Maybe.
This seizure, like all other drug seizures, simply work to keep the price of drugs higher than they would otherwise be – and even then cost of drugs is going down while the purity and availability are increasing.
Meanwhile, behind the scenes… No, that wasn’t Scarface and the Medellin Cartel, but it did put a crimp on these particular cretins. Ever stop to wonder about the massive amount of drugs that have to be coming into the country to merit guys from NYC moving to Mane to deal? Tons.
So glad they finally nailed these losers!!!!! They have been causing problems in the neighborhood for a long time, worth the wait for a thorough investigation, well done MDEA and everyone else!!
Couple of brothas from New York shacking up with a couple of welfare moms from the state of Maine…..Wow, never seen that before, and here here, they are dealing drugs…another unforseen instance. Maybe the MDEA could just start targetting the bus terminals and whether or not middle age women are picking up guys coming in from New York, cause this seems to be happening a whole heckofa lot lately
i agree, if you see some shady blacks in your lily white town more often than not they are drug dealers.
Not what I said, and I didnt throw out the race card, but so nice of you to. The facts are the facts. We have all seen it, and it doesnt take a rocket scientist to figure it out.
Actually, it is exactly what you said – brothas = shady blacks.
You sir are the one that is linking those names together. I have many friends who are African American and some even come from New York…I call them my brothas and they do me as well, what would you have me call them? DId you have a better name? Please if you can find a more politically correct way to state it then please enlighten us. Otherwise, lets just let the facts speak for themselves. As for you Bill, well I wont waste my time responding to your nonsense. You live to disagree with everything anyone says on these post boards.
and how do you define “shady”?
Slim Shady?
Thanks Tanner, yeah, I read the whole comment. Dang right, THOSE PEOPLE are usually up to no good. LOL
Assume much or just toss everything into that basket of contempt? Yep, ALL THOSE women on welfare are dope fiends and dummies for the NY dealers, every single one, right? I’m sure you’re right when you think you’re right, pally. Head right up to the Bronx and tell ‘those people’ to knock it off, brotha.
Goodbye huge pile of tax dollars. This couple ounces of drugs will cost the taxpayers at least a few million dollars; and we keep doing this over and over again. No wonder our deficit is so high.
So keep the tax money for the politicos to play around with and just let coke and heroin flow down the streets, right? That’s essentially what you just wrote, pally, defend it.
sweet….big pharma hates competition
There’s that. The outfit the markets Oxys made a record breaking profit last year…
oxys are made specifically for cancer patients and their end of life pain….and this world is full of cancer victims who need that relief for actual true pain
I don’t even trust a physician to give me anything safe, how could anyone trust a street thug to prescribe what you ingest and expect it won’t eventually kill you ?
Relatively speaking, the drug bust is a mere grain of sand on the beach. The War on Drugs has been a complete failure and has done nothing more than raise the price of drugs and making the problem even worse. The addicted drug addicts are going to have their drugs one way or another.
Good theory, but… The price of weed is high (ACK!) and tightly controlled, but the prices of hard narcotics and coke are lower than 20 years ago.