LEWISTON – Two men were arrested on Ferry Road Monday night accused of robbing a Lisbon Street pharmacy and fleeing with the prescription painkiller OxyContin.

Stephen Peterson, 35, of Warren, and Asa Troy Thorn, 30, of Rockland, were each charged with robbery after police pulled over their car just minutes after the heist was reported.

A Rite-Aid clerk called police at 6 p.m. to report a man had entered the store and demanded OxyContin from a pharmacist.

No weapon was displayed during the stickup but the suspect claimed he was armed, police said. The Rite-Aid employee who was allegedly threatened handed over a supply of the painkiller.

“They gave the suspect what he asked for and he left the store,” said police Lt. Michael McGonagle.

Investigators believe it was Thorn who entered the store and confronted a store employee.

Witnesses who were at Rite-Aid at the time of the heist reported seeing the suspect rush from the store and climb into a car near the back of the building.

The car was driven by another man and the pair sped out of the parking lot, witnesses said. The suspects were believed to have sped down South Avenue to Lisbon Street where they headed toward the Turnpike.

Police officers fanned out across the area in search of the suspect vehicle, which had been described by witnesses. One officer drove onto the Turnpike in search of the suspect while others searched streets and roads off Lisbon Street.

Officer Ryan Rawstron drove his cruiser down Commercial Street, which connects Lisbon Street and Ferry Road, police said.

“Officer Rawstron spotted a suspicious vehicle stopped near a business that wasn’t open and he checked it out,” McGonagle said. “It was good, heads-up police work on his part.”

The officer followed the vehicle and stopped it a short distance away, at Ferry and Apple roads. The suspects were ordered out of the car. Police said several prescription pills were found at the scene.

While he was being arrested, Thorn told police he was on probation stemming from a conviction for robbing a Poland convenience store nearly three years ago.

In March 2001, Thorn was arrested two days after holding up the Poland Mobil at routes 26 and 11. In that heist, a handgun was shown to the store clerk.

Thorn was arrested Monday night on additional charges of driving while intoxicated and driving with a suspended license.

Police planned to search the car as the investigation continued. Thorn and Peterson were taken to the Androscoggin County Jail in Auburn.

For years, OxyContin has been linked to robberies and overdoses around the nation as illegal use of the drug soared. A powerful painkiller used to treat short-term pain, particularly among cancer patients, the drug can fetch up to a dollar a milligram on the street.

Drug agents say illicit use of OxyContin has risen since users discovered its effects can mimic those of heroin if it is snorted to injected. One of its street names is ‘hillbilly heroin.”

Police did not say Monday night how much of the drug was taken in the robbery.

mlaflamme@sunjournal.com

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