March 29, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Burnham man released on bail

BELFAST — Ernest Braley, 35, of Burnham was released on $2,500 cash bail Wednesday after his arrest on a charge of trafficking in scheduled drugs.

Braley was arrested Tuesday in Troy while attempting to sell 5 pounds of marijuana to an undercover drug agent. Braley was asking $2,100 a pound for the drug. The operation was carried out by the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency and the Waldo County Sheriff’s Department.

“There was excellent cooperation between MDEA and this department,” Sheriff John Ford said. “I couldn’t have asked for an operation to work any smoother.”

Ford said the drug buy also was supposed to net an ounce of cocaine but that Braley informed the agent “he couldn’t come up with the coke until Friday.”

The arrest took place at 1 p.m. at the intersection of the Barker and North Dixmont roads, a rural site with no houses in the vicinity. Besides observing the meeting between Braley and the MDEA from nearby woods, Ford said the buy also was monitored from a circling airplane by another agent and a deputy sheriff.

Ford said Braley’s arrest gave authorities enough evidence to obtain a search warrant for his home on Lower Pond Road in Burnham. The search yielded another 3 pounds of marijuana and some plants. Ford said there were several vehicles at the home and a new snowmobile. He described Braley as unemployed and collecting Workers’ Compensation. Police confisicated the truck Braley drove to the transaction site.

“There was marijuana all through the house,” Ford said of the search. “There were scales and Baggies and every indication that this wasn’t just a small-time operation. The only place there wasn’t any was in the kids’ rooms. One of the children had a D.A.R.E. graduation certificate on the wall.”

Ford noted that because Braley had a prior drug conviction in Somerset County the charge could be upgraded to aggravated trafficking.


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