Three New York City men have been accused by federal authorities of smuggling a shipment of heroin and cocaine from New York to Portland to sell, and now each face a charge of conspiracy to distribute the drugs.
One man, 32-year-old Leon Payne, was arrested Wednesday on a warrant issued from U.S. District Court in Portland. Arrest warrants remain pending for 32-year-old Anthony Brown and 30-year-old Donald Reid. All three men are from Brooklyn, New York.
Federal authorities used a wiretap approved by a judge to intercept phone calls between Payne and Brown on May 26 and May 27 as they arranged to have Reid act as a courier to transport the drugs, according to federal court records.
Payne and Brown continued to talk in the recorded calls on May 27 without realizing that Reid had been stopped by a Maine State Police trooper after he got into a taxi at a Portland bus terminal with the shipment of drugs in a backpack, the court records state.
Payne appeared in U.S. District Court in Portland on Wednesday to face the charge before Magistrate Judge John Rich III and was ordered temporarily held, pending a detention hearing on July 8.
David Madore, a federal agent for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, documented some of the recorded calls between Payne and Brown in an affidavit that he filed with the court seeking warrants for the arrests of all three men. In the calls starting on May 26, Payne tells Brown that Payne has drug customers in Maine waiting to buy drugs from him but that Brown is late in delivering the drug shipment he needs, the affidavits states.
“You’re late, brother. You’re late,” Payne says in one call to Brown on May 26. Payne uses the street names, “Polite,” “P” and “Lee.”
“I know. I’ll take care of it, right now,” replies Brown, who goes by “Muscle.”
On May 27, Payne tells the courier in a recorded call at 2:09 p.m. to get a taxi and go to 122 Taft St. with the drug shipment. But after that, neither Payne nor Brown heard from Reid again, the affidavit states.
As Reid got into a taxi, a state trooper stopped the vehicle. Reid tried to run away, but police captured him. Inside the taxi, they found his backpack containing 256 grams of cocaine and 29 grams of heroin, Madore wrote. The affidavit does not state when or whether Reid was released.
By 2:43 p.m., Payne and Brown talk by phone again, wondering what happened to Reid.
In another call at 3:07 p.m., Payne tells Brown that he went to the bus station to look for Reid and drove the route to Taft Street without finding him or seeing any vehicles pulled over.
In yet another call at 3:09 p.m., Payne and Brown question whether Reid may have stolen the drugs, whether he ever got on the bus at all and whether the $200 they paid him as a courier was enough.
If convicted, each of the men faces up to 20 years in federal prison and a fine of as much as $1 million.
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