NEWCASTLE, Maine — The Maine Drug Enforcement Agency arrested a Warren man and a couple from Massachusetts on Monday on prescription drug trafficking and possession charges after a three-month investigation into drug activity in midcoast Maine.
Arrested were: Allen Cooper, 37, of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, who was charged with felony trafficking in oxycodone; Amanda Restel, 33, also of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, who was charged with possession of Suboxone; and Robert Colpritt, 36, of Warren, who was charged with felony trafficking in oxycodone, Maine Department of Safety spokesman Stephen McCausland said Tuesday night in a news release.
The charges against Cooper and Colpritt are Class B felony crimes, which carry penalties of up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to $20,000, McCausland said.
For the past three months, agents from the MDEA’s midcoast office have been probing the illegal distribution of prescription drugs, particularly oxycodone, in Lincoln and Knox counties, McCausland said.
On Monday afternoon, drug agents conducted a traffic stop of a vehicle in Newcastle and found Cooper hiding 90 30-milligram oxycodone pills, McCausland said.
Drug agents alleged that Cooper, who was the driver, would routinely travel to Maine from Massachusetts with oxycodone, which he would deliver to distributors in the midcoast area, and then collect his payments and return to Massachusetts, McCausland said.
While Cooper was being arrested, agents searched a Wiscasset motel room, where Restel, Cooper’s girlfriend, was arrested after she was found in possession of Suboxone.
A search of Colpritt’s home on Tolman Road in Warren turned up 22 30-milligram oxycodone pills, Suboxone and numerous other medications, McCausland said.
The connection between the Colpritt and the Massachusetts couple was not explained in McCausland’s news release.
All three of the suspects were taken to Two Bridges Jail in Wiscasset, where bail was going to be set, he said.
McCausland said that MDEA agents were assisted by Maine State Police, Wiscasset police and personnel from the Lincoln and Knox County sheriff’s offices.