LEWISTON – Two men nabbed by drug agents at a Portland bus station Wednesday afternoon were bound for Lewiston with 130 grams of cocaine to be distributed in the Twin Cities, police said.

Investigators described the pair as key players in the crack cocaine pipeline running between Lewiston and the Bronx, N.Y.

The two men arrested are an uncle and his nephew who traveled frequently between the two cities, carrying cocaine and handling money from drug proceeds, investigators said.

“They come up here, they sell their quantity of cocaine and they wire the money back to New York. Then they catch a bus and head back and start all over,” said Maine Drug Enforcement Agency supervisor Gerry Baril. “It’s a never-ending pipeline.”

Arrested by police and drug agents from Lewiston and Portland were Curtis Thurman, 37, and Allen Ballard, 21, both of the Bronx.

Drug agents who had been keeping the bus station in Portland under surveillance caught the two men as they got off a bus. Baril said agents found 130 grams of cocaine, with a street value of about $13,000, in a backpack the men were carrying.

“Obviously, this cocaine comes from a significant dealer in New York,” Baril said.

For at least a week, Lewiston police and drug investigators have been waiting for the pair to arrive in the area. Agents received a tip the men were traveling to Lewiston by bus, police said.

Last week, police officers and undercover drug agents fanned out near the bus station on outer Lisbon Street in Lewiston. The suspects failed to show up.

This week, a drug agent working out of the MDEA Lewiston office received information that Thurman and Ballard would be heading toward Lewiston. But they were expected to take a bus to Portland and then hire a cab to take them to Lewiston, police said.

“We had been vigilant about watching the bus station in Lewiston,” Baril said. “When we learned they would be coming in to Portland, we set up surveillance there.”

Ballard and Thurman were pulled aside as they stepped off the bus. They were arrested shortly after and charged with aggravated trafficking in cocaine. Each was being held at the Cumberland County Jail Wednesday night on $50,000 cash bail.

Baril described the pair as couriers in the drug trade between Lewiston and New York. He said the men – like other dealers in the area – wire drug money back to their connections in the Bronx rather than risk being robbed by rival dealers or others.

He also said the pair are only two of many New York men who peddle cocaine and crack cocaine in the Twin Cities.

Because cocaine and crack cocaine are cheaper in southern New England states, dealers who sell their product in Maine see a large profit from the sales.

“One of several sources of supply is a group of African-American males out of the Bronx, N.Y.,” Baril said. “It’s a normal supply-and-demand situation. It’s a revolving door.”

mlaflamme@sunjournal.com