Houlton man charged with selling drugs

HOULTON — A Houlton man was charged with furnishing scheduled drugs and possession of drug paraphernalia after police searched his home Monday night and seized about a pound of marijuana.

James Willey, supervisor for the Bureau of Intergovernmental Drug Enforcement in Aroostook County, said that Thomas Bell, 49, was charged after he and two other BIDE agents, three U.S. Border Patrol agents and four Houlton police officers with two dogs searched Bell’s Military Street residence shortly after 7 p.m. Monday.

Willey said the search was conducted after they received information that drugs were being stored there. Willey said Bell reportedly had been selling drugs for some time.

Twenty-five bags of marijuana that had been packaged for sale were found hidden in the cellar, a business office and second-floor bedroom, Willey said. The marijuana had a street value of between $3,000 and $3,500, he said.

Police also seized a set of scales used for weighing marijuana, boxes of baggies, roach clips used to hold marijuana cigarettes and other paraphernalia during the two-hour search.

Willey said the search dogs, Uri from the Border Patrol and Shadow from the Houlton Police Department, were instrumental in locating the drugs.

Bell, who was present during the search, was not arrested. He is scheduled to appear April 6 in 2nd District Court in Houlton, Willey said.

He said the charges against Bell are Class D crimes punishable by up to one year in prison.