ELLSWORTH, Maine — For the second time in two weeks, police on Thursday searched a dwelling in Hancock County suspected of being a methamphetamine lab.
And in doing so, Ellsworth police showed up at the same State Street apartment for the second time in the past 10 days in response to a call about suspected drug activity.
In all three incidents — on March 5 in Bar Harbor, on March 9 in Ellsworth, and again on Thursday — police have encountered Joy Levesque.
Levesque, 40, was unconscious at the apartment at 153 State St. on March 9 when emergency medical personnel and police responded to a report of a possible drug overdose, Ellsworth police Lt. Harold Page said Thursday. She was taken to Maine Coast Memorial Hospital in Ellsworth and, after being revived and then released the following day, was arrested for violating bail, according to Page.
Levesque was at the same apartment Wednesday evening when police showed up to do a bail check on another resident there. Kevin Guptill, 30, was arrested on charges of violating bail and possession of suboxone, Page said.
It was during their check on Guptill that officers saw items that made them suspicious that someone had been manufacturing methamphetamine in the apartment, which is located directly across the street from a popular playground and outdoor ice skating rink.
“Officers found evidence [people in the apartment] had recently been cooking [meth],” Page said.
Ellsworth police notified the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency of their suspicions. On Thursday, MDEA obtained a search warrant for the apartment and arrived shortly before noon to begin examining and removing hazardous materials from the building. Two other apartments in the building were evacuated before the search got under way.
Peter Arno, MDEA commander for northern Maine, said around midday Thursday that no one has been arrested or charged yet in connection with the suspected meth manufacturing operation on State Street. He added charges could be forthcoming later in the day.
“With any methamphetamine lab our biggest concern is for the safety of people that happen to be in the residence,” Arno said. “There is a significant chance of fire and explosion in conjunction with methamphetamine labs, depending on what stage they are in.”
Levesque was arrested March 5 at her home on Gilbert Farm Road in Bar Harbor after police obtained a search warrant for the property. She, along with Elwood K. Carter, 48, and Melissa I. Morse, 46, both of Surry, were arrested on class B felony charges of trafficking in scheduled drugs after MDEA agents searched her house.
According to Page, the apartment search Thursday on State Street represents the third time police have busted a suspected meth lab operation in Ellsworth in the past 18 months. The first such bust was in the parking lot of a local motel in October 2013 and the second was last summer in an apartment above a pizza shop on Hancock Street.
