WEST PARIS – Three people were arrested after a deputy stopped to assist a motorist with a flat tire and found cocaine, a loaded handgun and $4,500 cash in the car.
The driver and car owner, Ramona Bedard, 48, of Berlin, N.H., and her passengers, Peter Cortez Jr., 28, of Berlin, N.H., and Anthony Payton, 29, of New York City, were charged with aggravated trafficking in a scheduled drug Tuesday afternoon in Rumford District Court.
Oxford County Deputy Brian Landis said a 1991 Mercury Cougar with a flat spare tire was “limping along” the shoulder of Route 26 near the Snow Falls rest area Friday night. Landis, who was driving south in the opposite direction said the car stopped after he turned around to offer help.
Landis walked up to the car and the three were “acting very nervous,” he said, “fidgety, sweating, (making) no eye contact.”
He asked Bedard if he could search her vehicle, and she consented.
Landis said he found 26 grams of cocaine, a scale, cash and and a .25-caliber handgun in the back of the trunk. He immediately handcuffed the three of them, he said, and called Paris police Officer Nathan Bowie for help.
The cocaine was “not one lump,” Landis said. It was divided into many small plastic bags. Landis said the street value was upward of $3,000.
The three are being held at the Oxford County Jail. Bedard’s bail is $2,000; Cortez’s is $2,500; and Payton’s is $5,000. A probable cause hearing is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. on Aug. 8 at in the South Paris District Court.
Landis said the penalty for aggravated trafficking could be up to five years in prison.
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