Investigators

are looking for

a third suspect.
By Terry Karkos
Staff Writer

RUMFORD – Two Rumford men were arrested Wednesday afternoon during simultaneous drug raids by several police officers, drug and U.S. Border Patrol agents.

David Paquette, 26, of 235 Pine St. was charged with a Class A felony crime of aggravated trafficking in narcotic prescription painkillers and a probation violation.

Ronald Harding, 40, of 25 Falmouth St. was charged with a misdemeanor possession of prescription drugs. Other drug trafficking charges are pending, Rumford police said.

Both men failed to post respective bails of $3,000 cash and $800 cash and were transported to Oxford County jail.

The Attorney General’s office issued an arrest warrant Wednesday night for Patricia Paquette, 50, who is David’s mother and Harding’s girlfriend, said Rumford Detective Lt.. Wayne Gallant.

Patricia Paquette, who was not home at 235 Pine St. when police executed a search warrant, is wanted for two counts of Class B felony aggravated trafficking in narcotic prescription painkillers.

Rumford police are seeking help from the public in locating the whereabouts of Patricia Paquette, Gallant added.

Narcotics seized in the two raids were morphine and Vicodin.

Gallant, who participated in the Pine Street raid, said the investigation stemmed from a recent prescription drug overdose death of a Rumford resident, whom he did not identify.

“I’m scared that we’re going to start seeing more deaths now from illegally sold prescription drugs, because these people need a fix and the strength of the heroin they’re using has been cut way down, so they’re buying and pumping more drugs into their system,” Gallant said.

Due to the increasing frequency of prescription drug trafficking and abuse, Rumford police teamed up with Oxford and Franklin county police, Maine Drug Enforcement agents and two Border Patrol agents to combat the problem.

Two narcotics detection dogs, one from the Border Patrol and the other from Oxford County police, were used to locate the illegal painkillers.

“Illegal prescription drug sales in Maine is getting to be an epidemic, so we’re getting together with other law enforcement agencies, sharing information and resources, and aggressively investigating it,” he added.

Oxford County Sgt. Gary Hill, who participated in the execution of a search warrant at Paquette’s residence, said Oxford County is particularly hard hit by prescription drug trafficking.

“It is a problem throughout the whole county,” Hill said. “People are shopping around for the drugs, then saying that they’re selling them to make a living. But they are drug dealers, pure and simple.”

tkarkos@sunjournal.com

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