Three men, including one who goes by the street name “Jamaican Bob,” were arrested before dawn Thursday on drug trafficking charges after Biddeford police reported that they were investigating two apparent fatal heroin overdoses.

The body of one man was discovered Wednesday in a vehicle in the parking lot of Southern Maine Medical Center. The other victim was found in a home in Biddeford. Autopsies and toxicology tests still have to be done on the victims, said Scott Pelletier, spokesman for the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency.

“We don’t know the cause of death for the two victims yet,” Pelletier said Thursday night. “It’s way too early to say if these three men (who were arrested) will be charged” in the deaths.

The three men were arrested around 2 a.m. Thursday at the Brookside Motel & Cottages on Ocean Park Road in Saco, said Steve McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety.

McCausland said Saco police, Maine State Police and MDEA agents raided the motel. They found three men in a room and arrested them on charges of aggravated trafficking in heroin.

Arrested and taken to the York County Jail were Rasmane Sankara, 39, of West Africa, who is known as Jamaican Bob; Elqui Javier, 21, of Bronx, New York; and Christopher Ayotte, 45, of Biddeford.

Pelletier said interviews and evidence found at the scenes of the two deaths led them to the motel, where police said “Jamaican Bob” was selling “large amounts of heroin and crack cocaine” from a room. The drug agents put the motel under surveillance throughout Wednesday and into Wednesday night.

A state police dog found drugs in the room, police said, including 166 grams of heroin packaged for sale in individual doses. The officers also found 30 grams of crack cocaine and nearly $5,000 in cash. Police estimated the street value of the heroin and crack cocaine at $26,000.

During the booking process, police determined that Javier was in violation of his parole from New York on robbery charges. New York placed a detainer on him pending extradition proceedings.

Javier’s bail was set at $250,000 cash. Sankara’s bail was also set at $250,000. Bail for Ayotte was set at $100,000 cash.

McCausland said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told police that Sankara came to the United States in 2007 and has overstayed his work visa. He has several drug convictions in New York, McCausland said.

The MDEA will continue working with Biddeford police to try to identify the source of the drugs that caused the deaths.

“Heroin has always been around in my 30 years of doing this work,” Pelletier said. “The demand is there, but I’ve never seen supplies like this before.”

The men were held Thursday night at the York County Jail in Alfred.

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