BANGOR, Maine — A circle of acquaintances and family members provided the raw materials needed to make methamphetamine to three people accused of operating a meth lab on French Island in Old Town, according to a court document.
The probable cause affidavit filed in the Wednesday arrest of two men and a woman on charges of trafficking in meth mentions an earlier theft of lithium batteries by two other people and the purchase by others of behind the counter cold medicine — two major components of the illegal street drug.
The landlord of 3 Howard St., Old Town City Councilman Stan Peterson, called police Tuesday to say he believed one of his tenants was cooking meth, which started the investigation. Old Town police secured the apartment on Tuesday, and Maine Drug Enforcement Agency agents arrived Wednesday to process the scene.
“Agents located two used ‘one pot’ vessels,” MDEA agent Steven Saucier, a member of the Clandestine Drug Laboratory Enforcement Team, states in the affidavit. “‘One pot’ vessels are containers used in the main part of cooking methamphetamine.”
Tina Clavette, 42, who lives at the house, Joshua Doucette, 35, of Milford and area transient Aaron Coker, 27, were all charged with felony drug trafficking, Maine Department of Public Safety spokesman Stephen McCausland said Thursday.
Doucette, who has several previous drug arrests and convictions on his record, told police he was doing the “cooking” of the drug, according to the court document.
“Doucette states he learned to cook approximately a week earlier and admitted to cooking three times total,” Saucier wrote.
Doucette, Coker and a juvenile male were at the apartment when the search warrant was executed, and a witness said Coker had exited the apartment with his face covered earlier in the day to escape the fumes. Clavette arrived shortly after police arrived.
The affidavit states that Clavette asked a witness to purchase pseudoephedrine, and that her downstairs neighbor, who was not charged, purchased pseudoephedrine this week, as did Wendy Smith, 37, and Samantha Hamel, 34, who were charged with stealing lithium batteries on Sunday from the Old Town Rite-Aid store.
Investigators allegedly found Coleman Fuel and the remnants of lithium batteries just outside the mudroom of the French Street apartment.
“Coleman fuel, pseudoephedrine and lithium are used in the manufacturing of methamphetamine with the ‘one pot’ method,” the MDEA agent said.
A relative of Smith’s also purchased pseudoephedrine on Tuesday at the Wal-Mart in Bangor, according to a check of the National Precursor Log Exchange, Saucier states.
Clavette, Doucette and Coker went to Penobscot County Jail in Bangor and before a judge on Friday at the Penobscot Judicial Center.
Clavette was released on $2,500 bail, and Doucette remained in jail unable to pay his $2,000 bail. Coker, who appeared in court on Friday, also was released but the amount of his bail was not immediately available on Friday night, a jail official said.