Two men from central Maine — one from Skowhegan and one from Benton — are being held in a Massachusetts jail in lieu of $50,000 bail each following their arrest on drug charges Sunday morning on Interstate 495 in Haverhill, Massachusetts.
Joshua Blodgett, 26, of Skowhegan, and Shane Lunt, 25, of Benton, were arraigned Tuesday on charges of trafficking in heroin and trafficking in cocaine, according to Trooper Paul Sullivan, a public information officer with the Massachusetts State Police.
The men allegedly possessed 101.1 grams of cocaine and 51.4 grams of heroin, Sullivan said.
Sullivan said Blodgett and Lunt were parked at a rest area in a Chevrolet Malibu, which wasn’t registered to either of them, when two state troopers assigned to the Newbury barracks came upon them about 3 a.m. Sunday. He said both men appeared to be nervous and shaking.
“They observed items that, based on their training experience, were consistent with narcotics use and distribution, including torn-corner baggies, where they stuff the drugs into the corner and tie them off,” Sullivan said by phone.
He said a records check on the men showed previous arrests for drugs, which “threw up a clue to the troopers” that they might be involved in drug trafficking.
Blodgett also was charged with giving a false name to the troopers.
Carrie Kimball Monahan, director of communications at the Essex County District Attorney’s Office in Haverhill, Massachusetts, said both men have been assigned lawyers and are scheduled for a bail review Thursday. In Massachusetts, all defendants have a right to a bail review before a Superior Court judge, she said.
Their next court appearance is scheduled for March 14 in nearby Newburyport, because the Haverhill court is undergoing renovations.
The police report does not contain the street value of the drugs, according to Monahan. She said the penalty for trafficking in cocaine with more than 100 grams and less than 200 grams is eight to 20 years in state prison. For trafficking in heroin with more than 36 grams and less than 100 grams, the penalty is 3.5 to 20 years.
Local and state police continue to arrest people from New Hampshire and Maine who they say go to the Haverhill area to buy drugs and return to their states, where they can sell those drugs for a huge profit, the Newburyport Daily News reported Tuesday in connection with the arrest of Blodgett and Lunt.
Police say drug buyers are drawn to the Lawrence and Haverhill area because of the lower cost of drugs such as heroin, the newspaper reported.
Blodgett was sentenced to eight months in federal prison in July 2013 for his role in a conspiracy to distribute drugs from New York in central Maine.
He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and distribution of cocaine and oxycodone, as well as possession with intent to distribute oxycodone and aiding and abetting. Three years of supervised release, or federal probation, were to follow the prison term under the sentence imposed by Chief Judge John A. Woodcock Jr. in U.S. District Court in Bangor.
Blodgett had pleaded guilty to the two charges on Feb. 22, 2013, in the same court.
Doug Harlow — 612-2367
Twitter:@Doug_Harlow
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