PARIS – A convicted drug dealer with 28 packets of cocaine in his pockets led police to the arrest of another man who called the dealer’s cell phone trying to unload 50 prescription anxiety pills, Paris police Lt. Michael Dailey said.

Arthur Chagnon Jr., 53, of Oxford was pulled over Sunday for driving erratically, Dailey said. When Officer Christina Sugars looked in the car, she smelled marijuana, and she searched the car and Chagnon, Dailey said.

“At some point he kept his hands in his pockets,” the lieutenant said, even though Sugars kept telling him to take them out.

She found 28 packets of cocaine on him, Dailey said.

Sugars took him to the Oxford County Jail at 4:30 p.m. and charged him with aggravated trafficking in scheduled drugs. The charge was aggravated because of prior convictions of drug trafficking, though Dailey did not have the details.

While Chagnon was in custody, his cell phone rang, and a Maine Drug Enforcement Agency officer answered it.

Dailey said Bruce W. Griffin, 35, of Paris wanted to sell the agent 50 Xanax pills, a prescription anxiety medicine. The pills had been prescribed to Griffin, he said.

The MDEA officer went along with the call, pretending he was Chagnon. The officer was able to obtain a search warrant and arrested Griffin, Dailey said.

Griffin was booked at the jail at 1:45 p.m. Monday on misdemeanor charges of unlawful trafficking of scheduled drugs and acquiring drugs by deception. He was released on his own personal recognizance.

Chagnon is being held on $15,000 bail.


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