LUDLOW, Maine — Police have busted another methamphetamine operation in Aroostook County, leading to the arrests of two county residents on drug charges.
The case developed from a 911 medical call on the evening of Friday, June 29, according to a prepared statement released Tuesday by the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency.
Deputies with the Aroostook County Sheriff’s Office responded to the call and learned that Kayla Nason, 25, of Houlton, had been transported to Houlton Regional Hospital after being exposed to chemicals in a car during what appeared to be a meth manufacturing operation. She was treated and then released from the hospital later that evening, according to MDEA officials.
MDEA’s Houlton task force was called in to assist and that evening arrested James Anthony, 30, of Ludlow, on drug charges. Investigators also seized a vehicle at the Ludlow Road address, police said.
On Monday, MDEA’s clandestine lab response team, including a state chemist, executed a search warrant on the car in Houlton, where it had been impounded, and seized methamphetamine and “a significant amount” of other evidence, according to the statement.
As a result, Nason was charged with unlawful trafficking in scheduled drugs, a class B felony, and taken to the Aroostook County Jail. Anthony has been charged with aggravated trafficking in scheduled drugs, a class A felony, due to a prior drug felony conviction.
On Monday, MDEA indicated it had arrested six Houlton residents in connection with a June 17 bust of a suspected meth lab in Houlton. Those arrests followed the June 17 arrest of Toni Bulley, 48, of Houlton, on a charge of meth trafficking.
The Ludlow case represents the 26th methamphetamine lab incident MDEA has responded to so far in 2015, and the sixth in Aroostook County. Manufacturing meth not only poses serious legal consequences, but possible medical consequences, too, according to MDEA.
“The likelihood of fire, explosion and chemical exposure is extremely high,” MDEA officials wrote in the statement. “It is fortunate that the injuries sustained during this incident were not much more serious.”
Maine Department of Environmental Protection and the Houlton Fire Department assisted MDEA and the Aroostook County Sheriff’s Office in the investigation.
Anyone with information concerning drug trafficking in his or her community is urged to contact their local law enforcement agency or the closest MDEA task force office, according to the release. Messages can be left on MDEA’s tip-line at 1-800-452-6457.
