AUBURN – The mother of Cameron Camire – a 17-year-old Edward Little High School junior accused of dealing drugs – insisted Wednesday he is “not a monster.”

And he never dealt drugs, she said.

“I just don’t see how it’s possible,” said the Auburn mother, who declined Wednesday to be identified. “He lives with me.”

For now, however, he is staying with the police, she said.

Last week, the federal Drug Enforcement Agency busted Camire outside an apartment at 167 Summer St.

Camire’s brother had rented the place two weeks earlier, landlord Jesse Bilodeau said.

Camire, a member of Edward Little’s football team, had $10,000 in cash and was attempting to buy a pound of cocaine from an out-of-state supplier when he was arrested, agents said.

Agents then searched his brother’s Summer Street apartment and found a loaded assault rifle, two handguns, 60 ecstasy pills, a bulletproof vest and night vision goggles.

Such discoveries make no sense, said the mother, who has talked with agents since her son’s arrest.

“He was not found in possession of anything,” she said. “He never put up a struggle. Cam is not a fighter. He’s a lover.”

And the mom?

“I’m a basket case,” she said. Her doctor has prescribed medication to calm her.

Meanwhile, she is worried for her other son, too.

Police gave her a phone number and asked her to pass it on to him.

“I don’t know where he is,” she said. “I don’t want to know.”

On Wednesday, she returned to the apartment to talk with Bilodeau and clear out some of her son’s belongings.

The landlord never saw Camire, he said. He saw Camire’s brother only a few times since he agreed to rent him the apartment on Feb. 2.

“He was very quiet,” said Bilodeau, who lives in one of the three other apartments in his building.

His first clue that there was a problem was when the agents searched the apartment.

“There were about 13 DEA cars in here,” he said.

For Bilodeau, the situation has been particularly frustrating because he has worked to improve the apartment building he purchased a year and a half ago.

He renovated much of the two-story building while doing his best to research prospective tenants.

“This neighborhood is improving,” he said. “I want my property value to come up.”

Neighbor Mary Robinson, who lives across the street at 164 Summer, applauded Bilodeau for his work.

“He’s done some really big changes,” she said. But the street needs more.

A former social worker, she doubts she ever saw Camire. She worries about drug deals happening on her street, though, she said.

Still, she vowed to stay.

“I’ve been here since I was a girl,” she said. “I’m not moving.”