Two more men have been charged in the 2017 killing of a Whitneyville man, bringing the total to three, police said Wednesday.
Leanza Boney, 26 was arrested at his apartment on Staten Island, New York City, at 5 a.m. Wednesday by members of the U.S. Marshals Service and Maine State Police detectives on a warrant for murder, felony murder, arson, and robbery, Shannon Moss, a spokesperson for the Maine Department of Public Safety, said in a news release.
Basilio Liranzo, 27, who is also from New York City, is charged with felony murder, robbery, and arson. He is currently incarcerated at Maine State Prison on unrelated charges of elevated aggravated assault, trafficking in prison contraband and aggravated trafficking in drugs.
Last week, Justin Matthews, 33, formerly of Pembroke, was arrested in Saco on similar charges in the October 2017 killing of Wayne Foss of Whitneyville.
Boney was transported to a New York City Police Department precinct in Queens for processing ahead of his likely extradition to Maine, Moss said.
In 2020, Boney was sentenced in federal court in Bangor to serve 57 months in prison for trafficking in cocaine and heroin, according to federal court records. He had been arrested in 2019 for selling drugs in Bangor and was on state probation for a 2018 drug trafficking conviction at the time of that arrest.
Foss, who was 48, was found dead Oct. 28, 2017, inside his mobile home after firefighters were called in the early morning to extinguish a fire at 54 Middle St.
The commercial fisherman lived at the address with his wife and son but they were not staying at the home the night it burned, police said. At the time, the case was being investigated as a homicide but police declined to release any additional details.
Last spring, Foss’ family went public with their frustrations. They and a Whitneyville town official who knew the victim said Foss had been actively involved in drug dealing in the area and that they believed his killing was drug-related.
Foss’ family has not responded to messages seeking comment about the arrests over this past week.
Foss’ death occurred eight months after police conducted simultaneous drug busts at his house and at another in Trescott. Two men, one from Connecticut and another from Massachusetts, were arrested on drug trafficking charges as a result of the raids, police said at the time.
The fisherman’s death is among a half-dozen or so killings and shootings linked to drugs in Washington County over the past seven years.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated Leanza Boney’s age. He is 26.