ELLSWORTH (AP) – A Trenton man is in jail for allegedly running a drug operation in which he sold heroin and cocaine in exchange for stolen merchandise, including a church piano.

Hancock County Sheriff William Clark said Darrell Dolliver, 33, operated what he called a “pawn shop” drug operation, taking whatever his drug-buying customers could give him.

Clark said deputies searched three self-storage units in Ellsworth and found hundreds of items -most of them believed stolen – that Dolliver is believed to have accepted for drugs.

The items included a church piano, a silver communion tray, two all-terrain vehicles and five plastic bins of sports trading cards, which included the rookie card of former basketball great Wilt Chamberlain.

Police also found televisions, sports equipment, an antique work bench, an air conditioner, a stuffed duck, two dozen guns, a snowmobile and power tools, he said.

“We must have 10 complete computer systems,” Clark said. “We’ve already returned a snow blower to a local church.”

Dolliver recently became a suspect in the Hancock County drug trade after several investigations into drug activity, thefts and forged checks led back to him, Clark said.

Investigators used search warrants to search the storage units, and to seize a camper trailer and two vehicles, the sheriff said.

Clark said Dolliver didn’t sell much of the merchandise he obtained in drug deals. “These druggies didn’t have any money,” the sheriff said. “He was basically accumulating it.”

When sheriff’s deputies arrested Dolliver in Bar Harbor on Wednesday, they charged him with bail violation in connection with an arrest earlier this month.

Dolliver was charged Sept. 9 with hindering apprehension and with cocaine possession after he allegedly helped a Southwest Harbor man elude police in connection with the theft of $35,000 in cash and checks from a Southwest Harbor store.

AP-ES-09-19-03 1057EDT

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