A Boston man was arrested Wednesday in Yarmouth and charged with distributing heroin throughout the Brunswick and Sagadahoc areas.
The Maine Drug Enforcement Agency on Thursday announced that Alex Santiago, 25, is being charged with Class A aggravated trafficking in Schedule W. drugs.
Santiago was arrested in a parking lot on Route 1 in Yarmouth at around 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, when he allegedly arrived to deliver heroin to an undercover agent.
Santiago was taken into custody by Yarmouth police without incident, according to an MDEA news release.
Police seized 10 grams of bulk heroin with an estimated street value of $3,000. Bulk heroin is often diluted and separated into individual doses before being sold to a user, according to MDEA.
Santiago was transported to Cumberland County Jail where bail was set at $15,000 cash. He was charged with a Class A offense because he had a prior drug trafficking conviction, and because he was allegedly trafficking more than six grams of heroin.
According to the news release, for the past month, MDEA Mid-Coast and the Cumberland District Task Force conducted an investigation into the increased presence of heroin throughout the Brunswick and Sagadahoc County areas. The investigation found a group of Massachusetts men, including Santiago, were delivering large amounts of heroin to Maine on a weekly basis.
The men provided heroin to Maine distributors to be sold to local users, according to MDEA.
The Massachusetts men would stay at local Maine hotels to collect the proceeds of the sale, before returning to Massachusetts for more of the drug.
The investigation of the Massachusetts group is continuing, and MDEA said they expect more arrests.
Assisting MDEA in the investigation are officers from Brunswick, Bath and Yarmouth, as well as Sagadahoc Sherriff ’s deputies and the U.S. Marshal’s Service’s Violent Offenders Task Force.
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