A Gray man was arrested this week by drug agents after allegedly being found with $10,000 worth of heroin.

Angel Velez, 49, was taken into custody Tuesday by the Cumberland District Task Force and Maine State Police after police conducted a compliance check at his Lewiston Road home. Velez was arrested last June in Sanford on a domestic violence charge and is prohibited from contacting the victim or possessing illegal drugs.

During the search of the home, agents found the victim in Velez’s domestic violence case and their two small children. Velez consented to the house search, but didn’t want police to search his GMC Arcadia, said Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety.

A state police drug-certified canine alerted agents to the presence of illegal drugs inside the car, McCausland said. After getting a search warrant, agents found 120 individual bags of heroin in a plastic container, more than $700 in suspected drug proceeds and Velez’s Maine photo identification.

The approximate street value of the seized heroin is $10,000, McCausland said.

Velez was charged with aggravated trafficking in a Schedule W drug and violation of conditions of release. He is being held without bail at Cumberland County Jail. He was also placed on a probation hold because he is on probation from a 2013 felony drug conviction.


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