Drug agents busted a Mattawamkeag man with $180,000 worth of crystal methamphetamine on Monday — the largest in a string of drug seizures in northern Penobscot County over the last week, authorities said.
After executing a search warrant Monday, Maine Drug Enforcement Agency officers found 2.5 pounds — or 1,208 grams — of crystal meth inside Bruce McAlpine’s Depot Street home, said Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety. The Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office and the Maine State Police assisted in the arrest.
“Relatively speaking, it is not common for single seizures of meth of that magnitude to occur in Maine,” said MDEA Cmdr. Darrell Crandall, who declined to discuss the details of the case. “It’s not the largest, but it’s significant.”
McAlpine was charged with aggravated trafficking in methamphetamine and booked at the Penobscot County Jail in Bangor, where he remained on Wednesday, McCausland said.
On Tuesday night, agents returned to McAlpine’s home and found and seized six handguns and a sawed-off shotgun hidden on the side of the road, where police say McAlpine stashed the guns just before agentes searched his home the previous day, according to McCausland.
The bust came three days after drug agents arrested a Florida pair accused of dealing meth and heroin in Lincoln. The cases are connected, Crandall said, and are part of an ongoing investigation by MDEA into drug dealing in the area.
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