BANGOR – A Corinna man with a long criminal history is at large after a seizure last week by the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency of nearly 8 pounds of cocaine.

Jason Belmer, 25, fled Thursday from his grandmother’s home in Corinna after police arrived and later found a large stash of cocaine buried in her back yard.

“He took off running into a wooded area and hasn’t been seen since,” DEA Supervisor Garry Higgins said Monday. “We believe he may be out of state, possibly in Massachusetts.

“We also believe he is actively trying to obtain firearms.”

Higgins said collaborations between detectives with the Waterville and Newport police departments and the Maine State Police led investigators to the home of Belmer’s grandmother on Greenbush Road in Corinna.

Belmer was in the back yard when police arrived at his grandmother’s home and ran into the woods after he was spotted, Higgins said. A search for him was unsuccessful, but police found a large plastic bag – holding 15 other bags of varying sizes filled with cocaine – buried underneath a shed.

“From the spot where he was standing when he ran off, it looked like the dirt had been freshly dug,” Higgins said when explaining how police knew where to look for the cocaine.

The supervisor displayed the 15 bags of the narcotic Monday at the DEA’s Bangor office. The largest bag held 736 grams and the smallest 8 grams. Higgins said the street value for the whole stash of cocaine was as high as $380,000.

“We’re happy when we can get an ounce off the street,” the DEA representative said.

Higgins wouldn’t comment on how police discovered drug activity was taking place at the home of Belmer’s grandmother, but he said seizures of this magnitude are rare.

“It is a surprise. … It just doesn’t happen,” he said. “It’s one of the largest [seizures] in recent history.”

A warrant has been issued for Belmer on a charge of aggravated trafficking in Schedule W drugs, a Class A felony punishable by up to 40 years in prison.

Higgins said police don’t know where Belmer is, but they have reason to believe he is armed and dangerous.

Higgins said the drug investigation is ongoing, but “the main concern is apprehending [Belmer].”

Belmer received local notoriety five years ago when he was in Newport District Court facing burglary charges. The then 20-year-old crashed through a window at the courthouse, fled police and jumped off a bridge into the Sebasticook River, sparking a two-hour manhunt.

Belmer was found in his underwear on a sandbar of the river, muddy and bleeding. He was sentenced to two years in prison on the escape and burglary charges.

At the time of his arrest in 1999, Belmer was wanted on a warrant from Haverhill, Mass., where he was on probation for assault with a deadly weapon and assault on a police officer.

Anyone with information on Belmer’s whereabouts is encouraged to call the Bangor office of the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency at 941-4737 or the Maine State Police in Orono at (800) 432-7381.