PARIS – A weeklong investigation by the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency culminated in the arrests of two men Tuesday on charges of heroin possession.
Handwritten drug ledgers, guns, cash, cocaine, heroin and marijuana were seized in the case.
Gard T. Plummer, 67, of Paris and Derrick Morrison, 26, of Oxford were arrested on separate charges. Jerry Baril, supervisor for the MDEA, said the investigation was focused on Morrison, who was believed to be bringing drugs into the area from Massachusetts.
Drug agents said Morrison and his girlfriend were selling drugs out of a local motel. Baril said area police departments were alerted to the suspicion that Morrison was armed, and a statement from the Maine Department of Public Safety credits the Norway, Paris and Oxford police departments and Maine State Police for assistance in the arrests.
Baril said the Paris Police Department stopped a vehicle on Alpine Street around 9 a.m. with Morrison as a passenger. He was arrested without incident. The driver was questioned and released, and a woman passenger, Alexandra Jordan, also known as Alexandra Harris, 20, who used to live in Bryant Pond but is now homeless, was taken to a Portland hospital after admitting to using cocaine and heroin over several days, Baril said.
“It was in her best interest to seek immediate medical attention,” he said.
She was issued a summons on a charge of possession of heroin, he said.
A search of the car found a used syringe and a spoon with a white powder residue in the passenger compartment. Law enforcement authorities found 2.2 grams of heroin and 9.4 grams of cocaine, with a street value of $1,450, on Morrison, as well as $976 in cash.
At Morrison’s room at Goodwin’s Motor Inn on Main Street in Paris, agents discovered more heroin, a scale with cocaine residue on it, a four-ounce bottle with a cutting agent commonly used in cocaine trafficking, packaging bags, and handwritten drug ledgers.
Morrison gave an address of 106 Cheryl Lane in Oxford, an Oxford County Jail official said Thursday.
Officers and drug agents also secured a search warrant for Plummer’s residence at 260 Elm Hill Road, having been told by the vehicle’s female passenger that Morrison was keeping a gun there. A search of the premises found a Smith and Wesson .38-caliber revolver, plastic bags with heroin residue, used hypodermic needles, and a marijuana plant growing outdoors.
Baril said Plummer was forbidden from possessing a firearm due to a habitual offender conviction. He said Morrison had a prior drug trafficking charge from 2001 and was on probation for aggravated assault.
Baril said Morrison was believed to be moving from motel to motel to sell drugs, and that he had put down Plummer’s residence as his address in the past.
Morrison was charged with aggravated trafficking in heroin and cocaine, possession of heroin, possession of a firearm by a prohibited person, and violating probation.
Plummer was charged with possession of a firearm by a prohibited person, possession of heroin and marijuana cultivation.
Plummer made $500 bail two hours after being booked at the Oxford County Jail, while Morrison is being held without bail on the probation violation.
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