28 meth labs uncovered in 2015
HOULTON, Maine — In 2013, 20 methamphetamine labs were dismantled in Maine, setting a record for the state at the time.
But that figure did not last long. The following year, drug agents uncovered 28 labs. And so far this year, agents have investigated 53 suspected meth labs, 13 of which have been in Aroostook County, according to the state Department of Public Safety.
While police and the MDEA are working to keep methamphetamine out of The County, Supervisory Special Agent Craig Holder said on Tuesday, other drugs are gaining a foothold and being distributed right on Main Street in the small cities and rural communities of northern Maine.
“We are seeing more heroin in Aroostook County this year than in the past,” said Holder. “At the same time, methamphetamine manufacturing is still a problem, and its migrating further north, from southern Aroostook into Ashland and other areas.”
Two significant heroin busts were made in central Aroostook in April and May by the MDEA. Agents arrested Katie Ramus, 37, of Presque Isle and Norberto Colon, 31, of Brockton, Massachusetts, and seized $5,000 worth of heroin, Peter Arno, MDEA commander, said that agents located nearly 13 grams of heroin with a street value of $5,000, both inside the house and in Colon’s car, which was parked in the driveway. In May, Ignacio Roque, 37, a Florida resident who had been released from a Miami prison in February and was still wanted on several outstanding warrants from that state, was arrested in Fort Fairfield and charged with trafficking in heroin.
In that case, agents found more than two ounces of bulk unpackaged heroin with a street value of more than $20,000 inside his apartment, according to Arno.
Holder said that the Fort Fairfield cases are “not unusual.”
“The last three or four seizures of heroin that the MDEA has made have been significant amounts,” he said on Wednesday. “They have been 50 and 70 gram seizures. It is people from out of state bringing it into Maine and then selling it.”
Maine alone saw 57 overdose deaths from heroin in 2014, up from 34 the year before, according to statistics from the Maine Attorney General’s Office. Those who died of heroin overdoses ranged in age from 18 to 88.
Aroostook County Sheriff Darrell Crandall said in a recent interview that in general, deputies throughout The County continue to deal more on a daily basis with prescription drug abuse than methamphetamine, which is handled by the MDEA.
Caribou Police Chief Michael Gahagan said that in his city, another drug is more popular than meth or even heroin.
“We are still dealing with bath salts up here,” said Gahagan. “Meth has not gained a foothold like it has in southern Aroostook. Bath salts are not a huge problem, but they are more of a problem than we would like, of course.”
Holder said that on average, the MDEA has managed to curb the spread of bath salts abuse.
“We have done a good job of getting the dealers off the street,” Holder said.
In the St. John Valley, he said, cocaine has been a problem for a number of years, and still remains one.
“I think we have had more cocaine arrests this year than in years past,” he said. “The cocaine is being brought in by local people who go out of state to buy it. They are traveling to Massachusetts and New York.”
Holder did not have statistics about the number of arrests for the drug from 2014 to 2015 available on Tuesday.
In The County this year, the MDEA has made cocaine seizures or arrests in Presque Isle, Houlton and Sherman.
