Forfeiture of N.H. dorm sought under drug law

DOVER, N.H. – Police arrested nine current and former McIntosh College students on drug charges Tuesday, as the city police chief said he was pushing federal prosecutors to seize a college dorm under federal drug forfeiture laws.

“It is an open-air drug market like we’ve never seen in the city,” Chief William Fenniman said of the dormitory at 181 Silver St., where most of the suspects lived. “My idea is … to stop the building from being used for illicit activity. Whatever it takes to do that, I’m willing to do.”

The two-month undercover investigation by city police and the state Attorney General’s Drug Task Force, dubbed “Operation Home Cookin’,” focused on students at the college’s Atlantic Culinary Academy.

The raid capped months of increasing tension between the town and the college. Fenniman said police have responded to nearly 200 calls in the past year at the culinary school and dormitory and made 30 to 35 arrests on drug, sexual assault and other charges. Another dozen or so current and former students have been arrested elsewhere on the campus or in the city, he said.

Culinary students who saw the raid had mixed reactions. Amy Todd, 19, of Billerica, Mass., and Cecilia Self, 18, of Harrisville, N.H., said police used excessive force.

They said reporters were present before the raid started and news photographers took pictures as students were thrown to the ground and arrested.

“They had guns like in a movie,” Todd said. “I thought they were going to arrest all of us.”

“Why do you need M-14s to arrest kids with weed?” Self asked.

The two said that some students smoke marijuana in their rooms, but there are few loud parties or hard drugs on campus.

But another student, Scott O’Connor, told Foster’s Daily Democrat he approved of the arrests. Drug use at the school “makes me want to transfer,” he said.

College President David McGuire said campus security staff had given police some information that helped in the investigation. He said the college had already kicked some of the suspects out of the school or the dormitory and would discipline the others.

“We fully support the action taken. It’s part of an ongoing effort to enforce our zero-tolerance policy,” McGuire said.

Fenniman denied school officials had given the police any useful information: “In fact, they were unaware that this [investigation] was taking place.”

He also blamed school administrators for admitting students on probation or parole for serious crimes in other states, under an interstate agreement. At least three of the suspects arrested Tuesday have past convictions for drug offenses, he said.

“Based upon what we know is going on down there … the college has to seriously entertain a change in their admissions policy,” Fenniman said. “Because it appears in my opinion that all anybody needs to do is show up on the doorstep with a spatula in one hand and an application for federal aid in the other.”

At a forum last week organized by a city councilor, McGuire told neighbors the college had about 10 students on probation or parole, but defended most of the students. He also said the college had increased security at the dorm and added residential supervisors.

However, Fenniman said several months ago he was informed that campus security officers were being moved out of the Silver Street dorm. Foster’s reported several weeks ago that campus security officers said they were spending much of their time in a new office on Rutland Street, playing video games.

Fenniman said he has asked the U.S. attorney’s office to use the federal crack house law to seize the Silver Street dormitory, the “headquarters” of the drug trade.