WINSLOW – Police tackled a man Friday morning outside Winslow Junior High School and found plastic bags in his mouth containing marijuana and a white powdery substance.

The man, Zachary Morin, 22, of Silver Street, Waterville, was arrested and charged with aggravated trafficking in drugs and refusing to submit to arrest or detention, according to Police Chief Jeffrey Fenlason.

Police were called about 8 a.m. by the elementary school staff, who said a man had walked into the Benton Avenue school, according to Fenlason. The caller reported the man was acting suspiciously and appeared intoxicated, he said.

“Just as they called, he bolted out the door,” Fenlason said.

Officer Damon Lefferts and school resource officer Ron McGowen went to the school and were told the man was heading toward the junior high school, Fanlason said.

“They saw him on the basketball court, talking to a couple of kids by the junior high school,” Fanlason said. “He started running. They ordered him to stop. They tackled him and as they did, they found two plastic bags in his mouth — one with white powder in it and marijuana in the other.”

Morin told police the white powder was phenobarbital, a barbiturate used as a sedative and anticonvulsant.

Morin was unable to post $2,250 bail on felony and misdemeanor drug charges and was taken to the Kennebec County jail in Augusta. He is scheduled to appear in Kennebec County Superior Court on June 11.

Since 2011, Morin has been convicted of theft and several drug-related offenses, including one that year after he was found during the middle of the day in the auditorium of an alternative education school on Silver Street in Waterville.

At the time, Waterville Police Chief Joseph Massey said Morin was under the influence of bath salts.

“He didn’t know what he was doing or where he was,” Massey said then.

When police arrived at the school that day, they found Morin in the auditorium, lethargic and saying someone was chasing him with a gun, Massey said.

He was later convicted of criminal mischief, criminal trespass and unlawful possession of scheduled drugs and sentenced to 21 days in jail and a $400 fine.

 

Amy Calder can be contacted at 861-9247 or at:

acalder@centralmaine.com