WATERVILLE (AP) – In a scenario police say has become all too common during the past couple of years, two young men from New York City have been charged with felony drug trafficking for allegedly dealing cocaine out of a motel room in this central Maine city.

“We’ve encountered this particular type of operation a number of times over the last two to three years,” said Deputy Police Chief Joseph Massey. “They come in by bus from out of state, set up shop in a motel or an apartment, sell drugs for three or four days, then take the bus back home.”

In the latest case, police on Thursday night arrested Matthew McCorkle, 18, and Smiley Abney III, who is 20. Both men are from the Bronx.

Massey said police got a tip that drugs were being sold out of a Budget Host motel room. When police put the room under surveillance, they saw taxi cabs pulling up to the room and passengers going inside for less then 10 minutes while the cab drivers waited.

Police seized 2.6 ounces of cocaine and $2,600 in cash, Massey said. Chief John Morris said the street value of the cocaine is about $7,400.

McCorkle and Abney are each charged with aggravated trafficking in drugs, felony charges punishable by up to five years in prison. Bail was set at $25,000 cash. Neither Abney nor McCorkle had made bail by Saturday and both remained at the Kennebec County jail in Augusta awaiting an Aug. 3 court date.

Morris said traffickers from New York bypass cities like Boston and Lowell, Mass., and Portland and Lewiston in southern Maine along the way to central Maine because the drug trade there is controlled by organized street gangs.