Maine drug enforcement agents on Monday arrested three people in connection with suspected drug trafficking at a Baileyville motel.
The arrests came after a week of surveillance, during which time agents saw activity in one of the motel rooms that suggested illegal drug trafficking, the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency said.
At about 8:30 am, agents saw Katherine Smith, 36, of Baileyville leave the motel room and “meet briefly with an occupied vehicle nearby,” the agency said. Police detained her. She was later arrested and charged with unlawful trafficking in scheduled drugs, a Class B felony, and taken to Washington County Jail.
Baileyville police subsequently stopped the vehicle that met with Smith. The driver, Bruce Bailey, 37, of Baileyville, was charged with unlawful possession of cocaine base (crack).
Drug enforcement agents, with help from the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, Baileyville Police Department and U.S. Border Patrol, used a warrant to search the motel room and seized about 64 grams of methamphetamine and other evidence of drug trafficking, the agency said.
At about 3:42 p.m. the same day, Border Patrol stopped another vehicle in Baileyville that was believed to be associated with drug trafficking at the motel.
They arrested the driver, Dim Akopian, 40, of New Jersey, and brought him to Washington County Jail. He was charged with unlawful trafficking in scheduled drugs, a Class B felony.
Based on evidence from the motel investigation, agents were granted a second search warrant for Smith’s apartment on Monroe Street in Calais, where they allegedly found additional evidence of drug trafficking.