OXFORD — In what’s being called the largest drug investigation in Oxford County history, a team of more than 20 police officers and drug agents arrested 15 people Tuesday, effectively shutting down a major pipeline of heroin moving into Oxford County.
The arrests followed a two-year investigation, and it is the first time in Maine that charges of conspiracy to traffic in heroin have been brought against a ring of defendants.
Police estimated the suspects were responsible for a multimillion-dollar heroin importation and distribution business, selling over 80,000 doses of the drug in Oxford County since 2013.
On Friday, an Oxford County grand jury indicted the 15 people on heroin-related trafficking charges.
Among the people arrested Tuesday was drug abuse counselor Gregory Ford, 54, of Scarborough.
According to Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety, Ford was arrested at his office Tuesday morning.
He works at Supervised Community Treatment on St. John Street in Portland.
Maine Department of Professional and Financial Regulation records show Ford has been a licensed clinical professional counselor since 2008, and his license is active through January 2017. Between 1988 and 1991, he was a registered alcohol and drug counselor in Maine.
Ford was affiliated with Sweetser in 2013, according to the state’s license of drug abuse and treatment services.
Two of the people arrested — Dana Ingerson, 29, of Buckfield and Courtney Moulton, 23, of Bean Station, Tenn. — had a son together in June 2014 when they were living in Lewiston, according to a birth announcement published in the Sun Journal last year. There are two other children in the family.
Three of the people arrested Tuesday were arrested in April, after police followed a trail of money paid by a Bethel couple to a Saco man to buy heroin from Massachusetts.
They are Morgan McKinney, 20, of Bethel, her boyfriend, Brandon Blood, 23, of Bethel, and Del Hathaway, 26, of Saco.
According to Sun Journal archives, in April, McKinney was charged with aggravated trafficking in scheduled drugs, conspiracy, hindering apprehension and endangering the welfare of a child.
At the time, Maine Drug Enforcement Agency Agent Tony Milligan said McKinney and Blood “routinely consumed heroin in front of her infant child without a sober caretaker to watch over the child.”
Blood was charged with three counts of unlawful trafficking in scheduled drugs and aggravated trafficking in drugs.
McKinney is facing new charges of aggravated trafficking in scheduled drugs, conspiracy to commit aggravated trafficking and hindering apprehension or prosecution. All are felony charges.
Blood is facing charges of aggravated trafficking in scheduled drugs and conspiracy to commit aggravated trafficking, which are also felony charges.
At the time of their April arrest, police said McKinney and Blood had sent $50,000 to two people in Saco to buy drugs from Lynn, Mass.
Hathaway — who was charged Tuesday with felony aggravated trafficking and conspiracy to commit aggravated trafficking — was arrested on the Maine Turnpike on April 17 after using much of the couple’s money to buy heroin in Massachusetts.
At a news conference at the Oxford County Jail on Tuesday, where a large poster with the suspects’ photos outlined the chain of money and drugs, Maine Public Safety Commissioner John Morris announced the fresh arrests.
According to Morris, the charges resulted from a two-year investigation involving the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency and the combined efforts of nearly every law enforcement agency in Oxford County.
All were arrested Tuesday in a multi-state effort that extended to Massachusetts and Tennessee.
Morris called the group a “well-organized bunch of criminals.”
“These arrests are breaking up a major distribution trafficking organization,” said Morris, later adding, “This is stopping one organized group of people who were poisoning Oxford County. It’s a little more difficult to get your heroin today.”
According to MDEA Director Roy McKinney, a piece of information provided by a Maine State Police trooper found as a result of a motor vehicle stop was the impetus that began the two-year investigation by MDEA’s Western District Task Force, starting in November 2013.
Between January 2013 and April 2015, the investigation uncovered 15 suspects police believe were responsible for the importation and distribution of 17.8 pounds of heroin throughout Oxford County. That is the equivalent of 80,000 doses and a street value of $3.2 million, according to a prepared statement from McCausland.
“That tip began a two-year investigation that brings us here today to identify and infiltrate a heroin distribution network that was selling points of heroin for $30, half-gram amounts for between $80 and $100, and one-gram quantities for $180,” McKinney said.
According to McKinney, information led investigators to several heroin buyers who bought goods from Blood of Bethel. Police executed a search warrant in February 2014 and used information gathered from that, along with additional sources and information, leading them to Hathaway of Saco, whom McKinney said relocated from Lowell, Mass., to oversee the heroin operation in Oxford County.
In the course of the investigation, police say they learned Hathaway was a supplier to multiple dealers in Oxford County.
Last April, when police stopped Hathaway on the Maine Turnpike, Cameron Gervais, 26, of South Portland — who was arrested Tuesday — was with Hathaway. Police seized 20 grams of heroin during that stop, product that was bought with the $50,000 given to Hathaway by Blood and Morgan McKinney.
According to Director McKinney, police and agents conducted countless interviews, surveillance and undercover operations and purchases of oxycodone and heroin over the two-year investigation.
According to police, Hathaway and Brianna Thayer, 26, of Bean Station, Tenn., were the main suppliers of heroin to Oxford County, and the two identified their supplier as Brian Aquino, 34, of Lynn, Mass.
According to McKinney, the pair would pay Aquino $500 for a finger of heroin and sell that same amount for $1,000.
When police arrested Aquino in Massachusetts on Tuesday, they seized 10 ounces of heroin, or almost 2,800 doses, McKinney said. Police also seized cocaine, other drugs and currency.
Aquino will face felony charges of conspiracy to commit aggravated trafficking and aggravated trafficking in Maine.
“The conspiracy investigation revealed a staggering amount of heroin smuggled into and distributed in Maine by this lone criminal enterprise that is now dismantled by the grand jury action,” McKinney said.
He said the investigation was ongoing.
Because of the organization of the trafficking ring, all 15 suspects have been charged with conspiracy to commit aggravated trafficking in heroin, a felony offense. If convicted, they each face up to 10 years in prison and $20,000 in fines on those charges alone.
In addition, 12 of the 15 suspects were charged with Class A aggravated trafficking in heroin, punishable by up to 30 years in prison and $50,000 in fines.
“This is the first time that a conspiracy charge has been brought forward in a drug investigation at the state level,” Morris said. “This is the path that MDEA will continue on. And that is going after the organized out-of-state suppliers and not concentrating on the individual users. There are better ways to help those who are sick with addiction.”
Bail for each of the suspects ranges from $10,000 to $100,000 cash bail, with no third party permitted to pay the bail amounts.
List of Indictments
1. Brian Aquino, 34, 8 Hart St, Lynn, Mass.; Conspiracy To Commit Aggravated Trafficking in Scheduled Drugs, Class B; Aggravated Trafficking in Scheduled Drugs, Class A
2. Del Hathaway, 26, 962 Portland Road, Saco, (presently incarcerated York County Jail); Conspiracy To Commit Aggravated Trafficking in Scheduled Drugs, Class B; Aggravated Trafficking in Scheduled Drugs, Class A
3. Brianna Thayer, 26, 228 Country Place Road, Bean Station, Tenn.; Conspiracy To Commit Aggravated Trafficking in Scheduled Drugs, Class B; Aggravated Trafficking in Scheduled Drugs, Class A
4. Brandon Blood, 23, 110 McCrillis Brook Road, Bethel; Aggravated Trafficking in Scheduled Drugs, Class A; Conspiracy To Commit Aggravated Trafficking in Scheduled Drugs, Class B
5. Morgan McKinney, 20, 110 McCrillis Brook Road, Bethel; Aggravated Trafficking in Scheduled Drugs, Class A;Conspiracy To Commit Aggravated Trafficking in Scheduled Drugs, Class B; Hindering Apprehension or Prosecution, Class B
6. Dana Ingerson, 29, 29 Depot St., Buckfield (presently incarcerated Middlesex County House of Corrections, Billerica, Mass.); Aggravated Trafficking in Scheduled Drugs, Class A; Conspiracy To Commit Aggravated Trafficking in Scheduled Drugs, Class B
7. Courtney Moulton, 23, 228 Country Place Road, Bean Station, Tenn.; Aggravated Trafficking in Scheduled Drugs, Class A; Conspiracy To Commit Aggravated Trafficking in Scheduled Drugs, Class B
8. Scott Billings, 24, 1045 Route 232, Milton Plantation; Aggravated Trafficking in Scheduled Drugs, Class A; Conspiracy To Commit Aggravated Trafficking in Scheduled Drugs, Class B
9. Kevin Litchfield, 28, 386 King St., Oxford, (presently incarcerated Cumberland County Jail); Aggravated Trafficking in Scheduled Drugs, Class A; Conspiracy To Commit Aggravated Trafficking in Scheduled Drugs, Class B
10. Richard Labay, 38, 9 Orchard Court, West Paris; Aggravated Trafficking in Scheduled Drugs, Class A; Conspiracy To Commit Aggravated Trafficking in Scheduled Drugs, Class B
11. Michael Farnum, 24, 915 Route 232, Bethel; Aggravated Trafficking in Scheduled Drugs, Class A; Conspiracy To Commit Aggravated Trafficking in Scheduled Drugs, Class B
12. Jacob Santillo, 25, 216 Hancock St., Rumford; Aggravated Trafficking in Scheduled Drugs, Class A; Conspiracy To Commit Aggravated Trafficking in Scheduled Drugs, Class B
13. Cameron Gervais, 26, 771 Main St., South Portland; Conspiracy To Commit Aggravated Trafficking in Scheduled Drugs, Class B
14. Gregory Ford, 54, 35 Foxcroft Drive, Scarborough; Conspiracy To Commit Aggravated Trafficking in Scheduled Drugs, Class B
15. Matthew Ross, 23, formerly from Westbrook but currently homeless (presently incarcerated Cumberland County Jail); Conspiracy To Commit Aggravated Trafficking in Scheduled Drugs, Class B
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