BIDDEFORD, Maine — A month-long drug investigation by Biddeford Police Department’s Street Crimes Unit culminated in the arrests Tuesday night of three people, plus a fourth on unrelated charges.
A man and a woman from Massachusetts were taken into custody around 6 p.m. on Alfred Street in the vicinity of AutoZone and the Journal Tribune; two Biddeford men were arrested at their homes that day.
“It is important to note that this investigation was started and sustained by concerned citizen information and attentive patrol officers,” said Deputy Police Chief JoAnne Fisk this morning.
On Tuesday, the Street Crimes Unit obtained arrest warrants charging Class A felony aggravated drug trafficking.
Law enforcement officers swooped down on a vehicle with Massachusetts plates and arrested Christina Moreland, 27, of Dorchester, Massachusetts. According to Fisk, 11 grams of cocaine were seized subsequent to that arrest. Moreland is on probation from a previous trafficking conviction.
Bail was set at $50,000 on the drug warrant, but her alleged probation violation means she won’t be released from York County Jail on bail.
Biddeford Police were assisted in Moreland’s arrest by the U.S Marshals Service’s Maine Violent Offender Task Force, the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and an Old Orchard Beach officer with a police dog.
Peter Quimby, 37, of Biddeford, was arrested by members of the U.S. Marshal’s Service Maine Violent Crimes Task Force outside his home on West Cutts Street. He was taken to York County Jail and held in lieu of $50,000 bail.
James Ruane, 61, also of Biddeford, was arrested at his home on St. Mary’s Street following execution of a search warrant by all of the agencies involved in the case. He is also being held at York County Jail on $50,000 bail.
The driver of the vehicle stopped by police on Alfred Street, Duvall Davis, 38, of Mattapan, Massachusetts, was arrested on charges unrelated to the initial trafficking investigation and charged with operating without a license, Fisk said. He was also issued a summons for civil possession of marijuana.
Davis was unable to post $300 bail, and was taken to York County Jail.
Todd LaPoint, who does auto repair in the former Chapter 11 furniture building on Alfred Street, said he happened to look outside around 6 p.m. and saw a contingent of police cars.
He assumed at first that there had been a car accident. Then, he said, he saw police officers and whom he presumed were plainclothes drug agents with guns drawn, and a stopped car with Massachusetts license plates.
Marked police cars and several unmarked cars of police or drug agents were parked along Alfred Street near AutoZone and up the driveway of the Journal Tribune building. LaPoint said traffic was stopped at Barra Road and in front of Amato’s for a time.
It wasn’t something he usually sees locally, Lapoint said, before adding, “We’re starting to see more of it, though.”