WATERBORO — Three men have been charged in connection with a bizarre kidnapping attempt over drugs Thursday that York County Sheriff Bill King compared to a scene from “Pulp Fiction.”

The incident played out over three Maine towns and included an alleged threat to burn hostages with a blowtorch and a suspect holding a gun to a victim’s head.

Sheriff Bill King said this morning that the scenario – which began in Waterboro, moved to Newfield and wound down with the arrest of three men in Sanford – is another example of the heightened level of violent crime seen in York County in recent weeks.

Samuel Hilton and Anyheuris Mota- Speing, both 23 and of Lawrence, Massachusetts, and Angel Alicia, 25, of Lawrenceville, Georgia, were each charged with Class A felony kidnapping and robbery, and were held at York County Jail on $100,000 bail overnight after Sanford police stopped their vehicle on Route 202 midafternoon. They were scheduled to appear at Springvale District Court via video link from the jail today.

According to King, sheriff ’s deputies were called to Bridge Street in Newfield around 2 p.m. by a man who reported observing a man pointing a gun at the head of another, whose hands were bound with duct tape. The gun holder was yelling at the bound man, then got back in his car and drove away, leaving the victim behind, King said .

Deputies put out a notice to neighboring jurisdictions, and Sanford police stopped the suspects’ car on Route 202 near the Deer Ridge Park complex and detained the three men inside, said Sanford Police Chief Tom Connolly. The three suspects were “relatively compliant,” Connolly said.

The scenario began earlier in the day in Waterboro, when the trio drove to a home on Northeast Road.

“The out-of-state men were under the apparent misconception that there was a large amount of marijuana at the Waterboro residence, and they wanted it,” King said.

The trio was brought to the house by a Maine resident who has not been charged in connection with the case, he said.

“The victims claimed they did not have a large amount of marijuana, which angered the suspects,” King said in a prepared statement. “The aggressors ordered the three victims to lie on the floor while they secured their arms with duct tape and searched the house. When they thought one of the victims resisted, they struck him on the head with the gun and also dragged one of the victims down some stairs. The men prodded the victims and produced a blowtorch, threatening to burn them if they did not give up their stash of marijuana.”

“They came in like a couple of ‘Pulp Fiction’ characters,” King said via phone this morning. ”One of the victims concocted a story that the marijuana was in the possession of an ‘associate,’ and pointed to a random vehicle that was passing by the house. The quickthinking victim told the men the stash of marijuana was in the vehicle that was traveling down the road.”

King said the trio took one of the three male victims, all of whom appeared to be in their 30s, with them as they tried to catch up to the random vehicle, ending up in Newfield. King said the bound man jumped out of the car when it slowed down and began yelling for help.

King anticipates that more people will be charged in the case.

At the same time as this scenario was playing out, deputies were called to a report of a person who had apparently overdosed and turned up at a medical facility in Waterboro, and there was a second overdose later in the day. King said the incidents appear to be unrelated to the kidnapping scenario, however.

He pointed to a spate of recent crimes, including a recent domestic violence case where a man allegedly strangled his former girlfriend and threatened to burn down the home she shared with the couple’s 10- month-old baby inside, and a separate incident where a man was charged with beating his 18-month old baby, causing significant injuries.

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, ext. 327 or [email protected].