An Avon drug bust at which police seized more than $100,000 and nine types of narcotics is one of the largest that police in Franklin County ever have seen, the sheriff said Tuesday morning.
Franklin County Sheriff Scott Nichols said Daryl “Poochie” Searles, 56, was arrested Friday at his Avon home after months of investigation by state police, the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency and the sheriff’s department.
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Nichols said the seizure is large — in terms of amount of money and drugs seized — not only for the county, but also in comparison to other drug busts in Maine.
“This would be big in Portland,” said Nichols, standing next to a table displaying cash, seven firearms, a pound and a half of marijuana worth $40,000, and an estimated $18,555 worth of illegal prescription drugs.
Nichols said police did not consider Searles to be a violent person, and when they went to arrest him Friday evening, they sent detectives in plain clothes, who knocked on his Avon Valley Road door and asked him to step outside. Police think Searles was working alone.
“Currency alone in this house was $144,008,” he said, later adding that Searles personally was carrying more than $10,000 of that cash at the time.
Nichols said the 442 confiscated pills, containing 9,277 milligrams of narcotics, could get around $9,277 if sold in Lewiston and up to $18,555 in the Avon area at the price for which police say Searles was selling them.
Nichols said Searles has been charged with aggravated trafficking of schedule W drugs, consisting of oxycodone and hydrocodone, a class A felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison; and unlawful trafficking in schedule Z drugs, marijuana, a class C felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
Kaitlin Schroeder — 861-9252 kschroeder@centralmaine.com
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