Police on Wednesday arrested a Massachusetts man suspected of distributing heroin in northern Cumberland and Sagadahoc counties.

A monthlong investigation by agents with the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency and Cumberland District Task Force led to a group of men from Massachusetts, including Alex Santiago, 25 of Boston, who would travel to Maine’s midcoast once a week with large amounts of heroin, police said. The men would then provide the heroin to local distributors to sell locally, police said.

The Massachusetts men would stay in hotel rooms and collect money once the drugs were sold, then return to Massachusetts to buy more heroin, police said.

Santiago was arrested at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday at a Route 1 parking lot in Yarmouth as he delivered 10 grams of bulk heroin, worth $3,000, to an undercover agent, police said.

Santiago is being held in Cumberland County Jail in Portland on $15,000 bail on a charge of aggravated drug trafficking. He is charged with a Class A crime, the most serious drug offense, because he has a prior trafficking conviction and because he was selling more than six grams of heroin, police said.

Police expect to make more arrests.

The MDEA was assisted by Bath, Brunswick and Yarmouth police, deputies with the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office and members of the U.S. Marshal’s Service Violent Offenders Task Force.

David Hench can be contacted at 791-6327 or at:

dhench@mainetoday.com

Twitter: @Mainehenchman

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