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Drugs' abundance keeps Maine task force busy


AUGUSTA, Maine -- County drug investigators have executed about 90 search warrants in Kennebec County so far this year, leading to more than 50 arrests on drug charges, Kennebec sheriff's Capt. Jonathan H. Perkins said Monday.

"Marijuana is so much not the problem here. The problem is heroin and cocaine and crack, and drugs like OxyContin," Perkins said.

Perkins said Kennebec County, Maine investigators destroy the equivalent of about 500 marijuana plants a year, but of the more than 50 drug-related arrests by county deputies this year, 30 to 35 are what he terms "the more serious drug arrests" involving drugs such as cocaine, crack and heroin rather than marijuana.

Over the past two years, Kennebec sheriff's officials have assembled the Kennebec County Drug Operations Team, members of which work closely with their counterparts in the Somerset County Sheriff's Department, Perkins said. Deputies from both counties have joined forces in making arrests both in Kennebec and Somerset counties, Maine he said.

"I don't think that there is any other drug task force in Maine doing as much in terms of the number of search warrants as the combined Somerset-Kennebec task force," Perkins said.

He said drugs have become so pervasive in Kennebec County that state and county drug investigators have all they can handle working on their own.

"It's just so prevalent (state drug agents) can't keep up, so we, in conjunction with the Somerset sheriff's office, are working together as a joint task force; and it's already working very well," Perkins explained. "We've been doing search warrants from Jackman to Litchfield. ... MDEA is cranking full time, the Augusta, Maine Police Department is investigating their own, the Waterville Police Department is doing theirs, and we still are able to do over 90 search warrants just in Kennebec County, Maine."

Maine police across Maine have destroyed the equivalent of 14,399 marijuana plants this year, said Maine Drug Enforcement Agent Jonathan Richards, who keeps statistics for the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency. Police estimate that each plant can produce up to a pound of marijuana in its one-year life cycle.

"Mostly it comes in this time of year because we're in harvest season, and that does drive our activity up," he said.

"They claim each plant will yield a pound a year. It's an annual plant and dies each year," Richards explained. "That's a high number. But it could be thousands of pounds" that have been taken off the market.

He said that total includes only marijuana grown in Maine, whether captured as plants or final products. But marijuana grown commercially elsewhere and imported is not included.

"There's definitely an influx (of marijuana) this time of the year" when crops are harvested, Perkins said.