By Mark LaFlamme,Staff Writer

AUBURN – Two men have been arrested on drug charges following an investigation that involved explosives, stolen guns and a New Jersey murder in which four people were slain.

Local, state and federal agents over the past two days swept through a basement home on Highland Avenue where they say they found pipe bombs, money and crack cocaine.

Arrested on aggravated trafficking in crack cocaine charges Wednesday was 65-year-old Victor “Papo” Torres, described as the head of a crime family handling an operation that moves drugs, guns and money between the Lewiston area and lower parts of New England.

Also arrested on trafficking charges was Felix Merced, 35, who lives with Torres in an apartment at 29 Highland Ave. in Auburn. Both men are natives of New Jersey.

Torres, who has served time for killings, was arrested after police, drug agents and members of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms searched his basement home at 29 Highland Ave.

“Being the senior member of the family, Mr. Torres has taken over as the overseer of the operation,” said Maine Drug Enforcement Agency Supervisor Gerry Baril.

In 1969, Torres was charged with murder after a killing in New Jersey. The charge was later changed to assault in a plea bargain. Years later, he was charged with murder in a second slaying and he was ultimately convicted. He served more than a decade in the New Jersey State Prison.

“That establishes a propensity for violence,” Baril said. “You can imagine how hard it is to get people to testify against these people. They operate by fear.”

The MDEA has been investigating Torres and members of his alleged crime family for more than three years, Baril said. The probe took a step forward last week when a 25-year-old former Auburn man, Edward McDonald, was charged in a January slaying in which an Egyptian couple and their two children were slain in Jersey City.

Investigators in New Jersey say McDonald and 30-year-old Hamilton Sanchez killed the couple and their two daughters – an 8-year-old and a 15-year-old – while robbing them to pay off drug debts. Both of those men remained jailed in New Jersey.

McDonald has a child with Torres’ granddaughter and the couple are believed to have been living together in New Jersey at the time of the killings, police said. Investigators began looking at a possible connection between those murders and the drug operation that moves cocaine between New Jersey and the Lewiston area.

Meanwhile, earlier this week, a break-in was reported at Reid’s Gun Shop on Court Street in Auburn. More than a half-dozen handguns were stolen, along with two assault rifles. On Wednesday, agents from the Central Maine Violent Crimes Task Force, High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, the ATF and other agencies went to Torres’ home acting on information about the gun theft.

“They were looking to recover the guns stolen from Reid’s,” Baril said.

More than a dozen police officers and agents descended on the Highland Avenue home, a multi-unit apartment building near Court Street, a few blocks from the police station. The street was clogged with cars as Lewiston and Auburn police as well as investigators from the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office joined state and federal investigators in the search.

The stolen weapons were not found. But agents said they found 9.8 grams of crack during one search of the apartment, and another 4.9 grams on a subsequent search. Police said the drugs were packaged for sale and that $1,600 in cash was also found in the home.

While searching the apartment, police also searched a car parked in front of the building. Found inside were four homemade pipe bombs, Baril said. The explosives were handled by ATF agents who dismantled the bombs.

The woman who owns the car in which the pipe bombs were found was believed to be a local crack abuser who bought drugs at the apartment. She was being questioned about her involvement with Torres.

Components from the explosives were turned over to the State Fire Marshal’s Office for examination. The investigation into the source of the bombs was being handled by that office as well as a growing number of agencies here and in New Jersey, police said.

On Thursday night, police in the Twin Cities were still working with members of the Hudson County, N.J., Violent Crimes Task Force as they explore links between the January stabbing deaths of the Egyptian family and drug activity in Maine.

McDonald, jailed on murder charges in that case, was arrested in 2001 by the Lewiston office of the MDEA after he was found with a half-kilogram of crack. That investigation linked McDonald to the Torres family, Baril said. McDonald was believed to be one of several people who imported crack from New Jersey to be sold in central Maine.

“In exchange for the crack cocaine, the suspects are returning to New Jersey with cash, stolen property and firearms,” Baril said.

On Thursday night, the investigation into the Tuesday morning theft from Reid’s was still being investigated by police here and in New Jersey.

Torres and Merced were each being held at the Androscoggin County Jail on $25,000 cash bail. They are scheduled to make initial court appearances today in 8th District Court in Lewiston.