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LEWISTON – An Auburn man was arrested Monday in connection with the second of two central Maine drugstore robberies in three days involving the prescription painkiller OxyContin.
Anthony Gonzalez, 46, was picked up at a friend’s house and ordered held in the Androscoggin County Jail pending his appearance in District Court on a robbery charge, police said.
Gonzalez was accused of stealing the prescription painkiller OxyContin from the CVS pharmacy at Lisbon Street and East Avenue in Lewiston.
No weapon was displayed during the robbery Sunday, but the robber implied that he had one, police said.
In a similar case, an Augusta man was arrested Sunday and charged with an OxyContin robbery Friday at a CVS pharmacy in Augusta.
Lewiston police suggested that a police crackdown had dried up the supply of heroin, forcing desperate addicts to turn to OxyContin, a heroin substitute also derived from opium.
“One method is to go around to different doctors, what we call doctor shopping, to fake an injury or complain of severe back pain or toothache to get these painkillers,” said Sgt. Michael McGonagle.
Other addicts were stealing OxyContin, according to McGonagle, who said it was not clear whether Gonzalez was using the drug.
The street price for OxyContin can range from $10 to $50 a pill, McGonagle said.
He said 87 of the 100 pills stolen from the Lewiston CVS were recovered. During the past two years, the drug has become popular in parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland and Maine, according to the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Drug Intelligence Center.
In the Augusta robbery, Oscar Gagnon, 23, was being held at the Kennebec County Jail on charges of armed robbery and theft.
Federal charges could be filed because of the stolen narcotics, said Sgt. Chris Read.
Television stations aired information about Gagnon on Saturday after police identified him as a suspect.
Gagnon’s father accompanied him to the police station Sunday morning.
Police believe Gagnon was the man who walked into a CVS drugstore Friday brandishing a semiautomatic handgun and demanded the prescription painkiller from a pharmacist.
A previous arrest for driving under the influence, interviews with witnesses and several other leads helped detectives identify Gagnon as the prime suspect, according to Lt. Peter Couture.
Authorities still were looking for the man who drove the getaway car and the stolen drugs.
“We don’t know at this point where the OxyContin is,” Read said.
Police have impounded a vehicle that may have been used in the robbery.
Addicts scrape the time-release coating from the pills and snort crushed tablets or turn the powder into an injection.
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