BREWER, Maine — A month after a man living in town was fined and given a suspended sentence for methamphetamine possession in Aroostook County, he was arrested locally on a charge of dealing heroin, according to police.
Todd J. Whittaker, 39, of Brewer was charged with felony drug trafficking on Sept. 9, after drug agents completed their investigation, stated Peter Arno, a Maine Drug Enforcement Agency commander.
“We made undercover purchases of heroin from Whittaker” at a Bangor location, Arno said Tuesday in an email. “We have charged him (thus far) with one count of Class B trafficking in Schedule W drugs stemming from an investigation in August in which he sold heroin.”
It was also in August when Whittaker, who is originally from Aroostook County, was sentenced by an Aroostook County Superior Court judge for drug possession, according to Assistant District Attorney John Pluto, who prosecuted the case against him. Whittaker was fined $400 and sentenced to three years in prison with all the time suspended and two years of probation under a plea agreement, Pluto said.
“He assisted another person to acquire the ingredients needed to make methamphetamine,” the Aroostook County prosecutor said of Whittaker’s crime. “It’s not like ‘Breaking Bad,’ where you need to be a chemist.”
The “one pot” or “shake and bake” method for making meth mixes Coleman fuel, lye and other common household items together with behind-the-counter cold medicine, which is “cooked” by adding lithium taken from batteries, Arno said.
“[Whittaker] helped acquire the Coleman fuel and other raw materials, including the pseudoephedrine, which is in a lot of cold medicines, either by transporting people to stores where they could buy it or by buying the ingredients himself,” Pluto said. “People who make meth often enlist others to get the ingredients for them.
“He was convicted in May of this year for unlawful possession of scheduled drugs, a Class C felony, for the meth,” the prosecutor said.
A similar situation — with friends, family and neighbors involved in acquiring ingredients to make meth — occurred with the MDEA’s meth lab bust in Old Town last week, according to the police affidavit filed in court after three local residents were arrested for drug trafficking.
Whittaker remained at Penobscot County Jail in Bangor on Tuesday unable to pay his $5,000 bail. His next court date is a dispositional conference in November. Additional charges may be pending, Arno said.
“We will evaluate the case with our prosecutor to determine if other charges are appropriate,” the MDEA north commander said.