AUBURN — Authorities on Monday charged two men with drug trafficking after a 29-year-old man on Riverside Drive died from an apparent heroin overdose Sunday morning.
Kevin M. Camp (Submitted photo)
An investigation by Auburn detectives and the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency led police to search the home of Kevin M. Camp, 41, at 26 Fifth St. in Auburn, where they found 10 grams of heroin and other evidence of drug trafficking, according to a police affidavit.
Police arrested Camp and Frank L. Lynch, 33, of 13 Morris Lane in Leeds on Sunday and charged both with unlawful trafficking in scheduled drugs and violation of bail conditions.
The trafficking charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, if convicted.
Auburn police and Auburn Fire and Rescue responded to the initial call of an unresponsive man Sunday shortly before 7:30 a.m. CPR and other efforts were attempted, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Camp and Lynch appeared Monday in 8th District Court in Lewiston.
Frank L. Lynch (Submitted photo)
A judge set bail for Camp at $10,000 cash; for Lynch, $5,000. Both men were ordered to refrain from possession of alcohol and illegal drugs for which they could be searched and tested at random if released from jail. Each was barred from having contact with the other and both were prohibited from having contact with the deceased man’s girlfriend.
Neither defendant entered a plea because felony charges must be presented by prosecutors to a grand jury for an indictment before defendants can be arraigned.
Police Detective Nicholas Gagnon wrote in a sworn statement that he used the deceased man’s thumb to open his cellphone found in his pants pocket because it had a thumbprint option to gain access.
Gagnon wrote that he discovered a text message exchange between the deceased and a person identified only as Frank.
The exchange suggested the deceased man was seeking to purchase benzodiazepine or heroin.
The person identified as Frank indicated he could make the sale, which appeared to have been completed by 10:30 p.m. Saturday.
Police and drug agents went to Lynch’s home to speak with him about the sale. Lynch admitted selling heroin to the deceased man. He told police who furnished the drugs to him and showed them a text message exchange about the sale on his cellphone with “Kevin,” who was identified on his phone as “Kkk.”
Lynch let police text Camp from his cellphone while he was being booked at the Androscoggin County Jail.
Police later executed a search warrant at Camp’s address and arrested Camp as he was about to deliver heroin to Lynch, “based on my text communication,” Gagnon wrote in his affidavit.
Police also found heroin in Camp’s home as well as some stashed in his underwear.
Gagnon wrote that state prosecutors expect to charge the defendants with aggravated trafficking of scheduled drugs, a Class A crime, after the medical examiner presents police with the cause of death of the deceased man. A Class A crime carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison.
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