LINCOLN, Maine — A suspect’s decision to flee a fender-bender on West Broadway led investigators Thursday to 66 bags of heroin, a handgun and six people who are now facing charges, including one for allegedly failing to register as a convicted sex offender, police said Friday.
Two suspects were arrested, four issued summonses and several items identified as drug paraphernalia, including hypodermic needles, were seized from an Enfield Road home and two vehicles thanks to quick work by Lincoln and East Millinocket police, Penobscot County sheriffs deputies and state police, Lincoln Public Safety Director Dan Summers said.
“The officers were being observant and working as a team,” Summers said Friday. “When you are investigating something like that, you just never know what you might find. When you have officers that are thorough and on the ball, you run into cases like this, where everything just comes together.”
Andrea Carlow, 24, of Lincoln, was charged Thursday with Class B aggravated furnishing of scheduled drugs, two counts of possession of unlawful scheduled drugs, and a single count of unlawful possession of Suboxone, Summers said.
Police arrested Carlow at her home at 665 Enfield Road after they allegedly found in her possession the heroin plus four hydrocodone, 10 oxycodone and two Suboxone pills. The aggravated furnishing charge was upgraded from Class C due to her having a .38-caliber revolver, Summers said.
Walter Cote III, 46, of Lincoln, was issued a summons for Class C unlawful possession of scheduled drugs — allegedly a single bag of heroin. His son, Walter Cote IV, 18, of Lincoln, was issued a summons for sale and use of drug paraphernalia. Summers said police found both men at Carlow’s home.
Police estimated the street value of the drugs to be about $1,000.
The investigation began when Lincoln police Officer Brandi Alton received a report of a hit-and-run motor vehicle accident in front of Hannaford Supermarket at about 3:30 p.m. Thursday. A woman reported that a dirty gray Chevy S-10 pickup truck had gently rear-ended her Chevy Cobalt and driven off as she sat waiting to turn left into the shopping center, Summers said.
State police Troopers Andrew Pierson and Christopher Foxworthy, who were nearby when the call came in, then found in a driveway near Carlow’s home a truck matching a description that Alton radioed, Summers said.
While there, interviews and the observance of “suspicious behavior” led investigators to temporarily detain several people who were at Carlow’s residence or trying to leave it it in a third vehicle. That included the Cotes and Chad Fogg, 33, of Winn, whom they identified as the pickup truck driver, Summers said.
Lincoln police charged Fogg with leaving the scene of a property-damage accident, while state police issued a summons to a pickup truck passenger, Ryan Cobb, 26, for violation of conditions of release and failure to give a current name and address to an officer, Summers said.
East Millinocket police charged John Page III, 51, of East Millinocket with Class B failure to register as a convicted sex offender, his third offense, a Penobscot County Jail official said.
Penobscot County Sheriff’s Deputy Patty McLaughlin and East Millinocket police Officer Brad Fitzgerald arrested Page at Carlow’s residence. They were in the Springfield area looking for him when they heard radio traffic from Carlow’s home, said Lincoln police Officer John Walsh, the case’s lead investigator.
The Maine State Sex Offender Registry on Friday listed Page as a Medway resident and lifetime registrant convicted of gross sexual misconduct and an earlier charge of failure to register as a sex offender.
Carlow is being held on $7,000 cash bail. If she fails to pay it, she will be held at Penobscot County Jail until her court appearance at Bangor Judicial Center on June 11. Page is being held on $5,060 bail and is due at the Penobscot Judicial Center on Monday, a jail officer said.
Walter Cote III is due to appear at the judicial center on June 11. Fogg, Cobb and Walter Cote IV are due in Lincoln District Court on June 2, Summers said.