Two New York residents took a bus and then a taxi to Richmond on Wednesday night to allegedly set fire to a house to collect a drug money debt, according to police.
A woman and her daughter fled, unharmed, from the burning home on Pitts Corner Road, police said.
Todd Dickson, 26, and Joris Gomez, 25, both of New York City, remained at Two Bridges Regional Jail on Thursday, charged with two counts of arson, burglary, theft and aggravated trafficking in heroin, according to a release from Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety.
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The duo allegedly took a bus from New York City to Portland, and then a taxi to Richmond, stopping at a convenience store along the way to purchase a can of gasoline.
They then allegedly spread gasoline throughout a house on Pitts Corner Road, as well as on a car in the driveway. The car was destroyed by the fire, and the house sustained minor fire damage.
The New Yorkers then left the scene in the same taxi, which was stopped by police shortly afterwards on Interstate 295 in Topsham.
On Tuesday, another woman who had been living in the Pitts Corner Road was arrested and charged with selling heroin.
Lorretta Susan Perkins, 27, was arrested in Wiscasset, McCausland said. Police allegedly seized crack cocaine, heroin, fentanyl and methamphetamine from her, as well as $1,000 in cash and drug ledger books. Perkins was released from Two Bridges Regional Jail on Tuesday on $500 unsecured bail, according to the jail.
Her arrest prompted police to begin searching for Dickson and Gomez as the suppliers of the drugs, McCausland said.