PHILLIPS – Maine drug agents had been investigating suspected drug trafficker Jason Fowler of Chesterville since July 9 when a confidential informant spoke to police, according to a Maine Drug Enforcement agent’s affidavit filed with the Farmington court.
Fowler, 39, and Michael Halle, 45, of Phillips, Erin Smith, 42, of Phillips and Kimberly Webber, 25, of Chesterville were arrested on drug trafficking charges Monday night after Fowler’s vehicle was stopped because he was known to have a suspended license. Police found items in the Jeep that were consistent with making methamphetamine and Webber, a passenger in the vehicle, had control of some of the drug used to make it, police said.
Agents and police searched Fowler’s vehicle, Halle and Smith’s house in Phillips, and Fowler’s house in Chesterville.
Agents and Franklin County Sheriff’s Detective Ken Charles met with the informant at the Farmington Police Station to discuss the possibility of Fowler manufacturing methamphetamine.
The informant told them that Fowler had been asking several individuals to purchase the precursor required to manufacture the drug. One of the precursors is the controlled substance, pseudoephedrine, which requires someone purchasing it to show photo identification, according to the affidavit.
The informant told officials that he/she witnessed Fowler passing around a substance that the informant described as looking like “course sea salt,” and said the substance was white and like glass, the affidavit states.
The informant said Fowler had burned himself with some of the products used to make the drug on July 4.
In addition to seeing the substance, the informant said Fowler always keeps his drugs on his person at all times. He said the drug and his other medications were kept in a black case.
The informant told investigators that he/she believed that a person named “Mike” is involved with Fowler in the manufacturing of the drug, the affidavit states.
A drug agent spoke to the informant again on July 14 and was told there was some trash outside of Fowler’s residence at 110 Ridge Road. The person told him the there was a plastic tote with an empty box of cold packs. The person also described a mason jar with a white powder in the bottom with a blackish substance on top, the affidavit states.
Charles, who was the first to learn Fowler was making the drug, stopped Fowler’s Jeep in Avon and arrested him on a charge of driving without a license.
Webber admitted to investigators to using methamphetamine but contended she never saw it being made, the affidavit states.
Webber also told them she and Fowler had been staying/camping at a residence in Phillips with Halle. Investigators believed that Halle was the “Mike” that the informant told them about, the affidavit states.
According to Webber, it is also believed that Halle was teaching several individuals, including Fowler, how to make methamphetamine. She also admitted to buying lithium batteries for Fowler. The batteries and cold packs are two ingredients to making the drug, the document states.
When Halle and Smith were questioned by agents at the Phillips residence, after they were read their Miranda rights, both of them admitted that they participated in manufacturing methamphetamine with Fowler, the affidavit states.
Halle directed agents to a second-floor bedroom where a supervising agent identified products he knows are used in making the drug.
dperry@sunjournal.com
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