DRUGS DRIVE CRIME IN CENTRAL MAINE

EDITOR'S NOTE: In the first of a series, Morning Sentinel staff review
local issues and events of 2004. Today, a look at crime.

On Oct. 18, 2004, two men wearing dark clothing and black ski masks walked
into a credit union in North Vassalboro, pointed a gun at the female
tellers and demanded cash. They got the cash and they got away.

When police finally caught up with Albert "AJ" Peaslee Jr., 21, of Augusta,
Jimmy Lee Wilson, 20, also of Augusta and Jeremy Jones, 26, of Gardiner,
they were told the loot from the heist was spent on heroin, crack cocaine
and gambling.

Illegal drugs -- hard drugs -- became part of the picture of Maine life
this past year. Burglary and theft, robbery and assault were simply a means
to an end, police and prosecutors said -- the dead end of substance abuse
- -- ultimately, prison or in some cases, death.

From one end of the state to the other in 2004, drugs such as heroin,
crack cocaine and prescription drugs, including OxyContin -- dubbed
"hillbilly heroin" -- found their way into the local community.

"I am prepared to devote the full resources of my office to this because I
think the problem of illicit drug trafficking is a grave one," Evert N.
Fowle, district attorney for Kennebec and Somerset counties said following
a drug summit of law enforcement officials in October. "If you go back
eight or nine years, even five years ago, there virtually was no heroin in
this area. It's easy to blame out-of-state drug dealers, but if there were
not a local market for it, they wouldn't come."

Task Force

The area's top drug investigators met with Fowle as part of a task force
formed this year aimed at fighting heroin, crack cocaine and illicit
prescription drugs in central Maine.

Winslow Police Detective Gina Henderson said there were drug overdoses and
at least one possible drug-related death in the area in 2004, with
teenagers joining the ranks of the addicted.

"In my career here, I've never seen it so bad," she said. "We've got
heroin, we've got crack, we've got cocaine and prescription drugs
overflowing onto the streets."

Henderson said part of the focus of the task force is to stem the
"diversion" of prescription drugs from doctors' offices to the street. She
said she is now seeing young teenagers crushing prescription pills and
snorting and selling the powder.

In Fairfield, Detective Kelley Hooper said robbers in August broke into
Community Pharmacy on Main Street and made off with more than 10,000 pills
of narcotics. The burglary and theft have not been solved.

"In a lot of burglaries, they steal property to buy drugs," Hooper said in
October. "In the 12 years I've been in Fairfield, there is more heroin and
cocaine dealing going now in this area than I've seen since I've been here."

Oxycodone, methadone, morphine and Percocet were taken in the burglary.

Three months later a man armed with a handgun and a large knife robbed the
Rite Aid pharmacy, also on Main Street, Fairfield on a Sunday morning,
threatening to stab employees if he was not given narcotics. Police said he
demanded Percocet, OxyContin and Oxycodone.

Police think the same man pulled a similar job at a Pharmacy in Pittsfield
on Dec. 21. This time a person was stabbed in the robbery of narcotics.

Burglaries Solved

Also in October, an Augusta man was arrested and thousands of dollars worth
of stolen property was confiscated in connection with a string of 70
burglaries spanning a half-dozen counties and 29 towns across the state
during the summer of 2004.

Christopher Merrill, 20, was charged with burglary and theft in the cases

"It has been indicated to us that this was to feed a heroin habit,"
Kennebec County Sheriff Everett B. Flannery Jr. said.

Most of the burglaries occurred at businesses, according to Flannery, who
said damages and total dollar value of stolen items topped $100,000.

In Corinna, Jeanne E. Rogers, 64, the grandmother of a man sentenced to 13
years in prison for burying eight pounds of cocaine on her property, was
herself charged with drug trafficking. Rogers was arrested in October in
connection with the drug trafficking operation of her grandson, 25-year-old
Jason Belmer.

When police seized cocaine buried in Rogers' pool shed in September, Belmer
fled and was the subject of a nationwide search for six weeks. He eluded
police in Maine, Colorado and Kansas.

In September 22-year-old Jared D. Bouchard of Fairfield was indicted on
charges of aggravated drug trafficking, a crime that could send him to
prison for 20 years. Police seized 31 grams of pure heroin from his home on
Lower Ridge Road in the early morning of Aug. 4.

Raw and Deadly

Two police dogs found the heroin in a plastic bread bag, tucked into the
siding of the house. In its raw, uncut state, the drug appeared to be
off-white and molded into lengths -- like sticks of classroom chalk -- as
thick as an adult's forefinger.

Police said a field test on the drugs showed the heroin to be as close to
pure as has been seen in central Maine. They said for every 6 grams of
uncut heroin, 250 or more commercial bags can be produced for street sales.

"As most all of the heroin around here, it comes from out of state,"
Fairfield Detective Kingston Paul said. "This is the first time I have seen
it come across in fingers. I've heard about it, but I've never seen it."

Authorities said that whenever heroin reserves dry up, addicts are forced
to hit pharmacies for the powerful narcotic OxyContin. They said 80 percent
of county jail inmates were either heroin addicts or regularly depend on
the drug.

Larry D. Orchard, 49, of Winslow was sentenced in Kennebec County Superior
Court to 30 months in prison after being convicted of aggravated
trafficking in heroin, conspiracy to commit trafficking and unlawful
possession of Valium.

He pleaded guilty June 22.

Orchard and his brother, Vaughn Orchard, 43, were arrested after drug
enforcement agents raided Larry Orchard's home. Police said they seized 24
grams of uncut heroin valued at $18,000, cocaine and marijuana.

Vaughn Orchard was sentenced last April to one year in prison after he
pleaded guilty to possession of drugs and criminal conspiracy.

More Sweeps

In August, a Kennebec County grand jury indicted nine different people on
felony drug trafficking charges, ranging from aggravated trafficking in
heroin and cocaine to possession and conspiracy to traffic in illegal drugs.

In April, 14 people from across central Maine were charged with
drug-related crimes after police swept nine towns statewide in a two-week
operation. Police said the operation underscored a worrying trend:
Out-of-state drugs are finding an easy foothold in the worsening economic
climate in Maine, and children are being used as accessories to the crimes.

Two of those charged were from New York; the rest were from Winslow,
Waterville, Oakland, Clinton, Sidney and Fairfield. Not all 14 were related
to a single ring. Residences, vehicles and a motel room were searched in
Hartland, West Athens, Fairfield, Winslow, Waterville, Oakland, Sidney,
Saco and Clinton.

About 200 marijuana plants were seized, as were dozens of ecstasy pills, a
quarter-ounce of methamphetamine and chargeable amounts of heroin, cocaine
and crack cocaine. Police also took about $18,000 in cash, suspected to be
proceeds from the drug operations.

In March, 40 to 50 grams of heroin was found in Waterville, headed not for
the mean streets of central Maine, but for the Maine State Prison in
Warren, where the estimated $20,000 worth of the narcotic could sell for as
much as $50,000, police said.

Waterville police said the substance was in powdered form and packaged in
small, colorful balloons.

In non drug-related cases of crime this past year Gary Watland, 42, told
police he used a .38-caliber handgun to shoot a man he hardly knew in the
head. Wayne S. Crowley, 32, of Pease Hill Road, Anson died an hour after
the shooting.

Watland said he invited Crowley over to his own home on nearby Fish Road,
where they drank beer and Crowley played a guitar.

After about 10 beers, Crowley became verbally abusive to Susan Watland, and
when he was told to leave, Crowley became physical, pushing and shoving
Susan Watland. Gary Watland hit him twice in the jaw, knocking him down.

As Crowley got up and started walking back toward the house, Watland said
he fired a warning shot into the ground. As Crowley continued to walk
toward him, Watland fired one shot at Crowley's head, he said.

"I saw the body fall," Watland said. Watland has been charged with murder.

In Madison this past summer, 19-year-old James "Tony" Wildes and his
16-year-old brother Christopher Wildes were charged with robbing the
Franklin-Somerset Federal Credit Union on Main Street, Madison. The credit
union was robbed twice, once on July 6 and again Aug. 12.

Police said an estimated $15,000 the first time. The amount taken the
second time was not disclosed. Prosecutors later dropped the second charge
against the younger Wildes.

The credit union robberies remained unsolved for six weeks while the
brothers allegedly hid out with their uncle in Limington. Police caught up
with and arrested Christopher Wildes in Waterville on Aug. 18. The next
night, they tracked down James Wildes on the East River Road in Skowhegan.

Their trials are pending.