BANGOR – Police executed a search warrant earlier this week at a Fern Street apartment, arresting two people and recovering drugs, needles, medications and other evidence of a drug sales operation.

Tipped off that there were a lot of people coming and going from the apartment, police on March 4 searched trash left by the curb and found contraband that helped lead to a court-issued search warrant four days later.

On March 8, the same day the warrant was issued, Bangor’s Special Enforcement Team entered the apartment about 7:20 p.m. and executed the search warrant.

Based on what was found inside, the team charged residents Jonathan Rich and Josi Williams, both 22, with unlawful trafficking in scheduled drugs, illegal possession of hypodermic apparatuses, and sale and use of drug paraphernalia.

The two were secured downstairs as the officers searched the apartment, and at one point, Williams was overheard whispering to Rich, “They must have found the weed,” Bangor police Officer David Bushey reported.

Upstairs in a plastic bag hanging onto a bedroom closet doorknob, police found four bags of marijuana that appeared packaged for sale, along with some small scales, Officer Eric Tourtelotte said. Tourtelotte also seized a notepad that appeared to be a ledger containing drug transactions, according to police reports.

Also seized was a metal safe that contained 80 hypodermic needles, 14 razors and seven spoons, two of which were secured in envelopes for testing of a white powder found on them, said Officer Michael Brennan.

Medications, prescription pills and other substances were found throughout the apartment as well as items that suggested one of the people may have been swallowing drugs as a means of transporting them from place to place. In a toolbox, Brennan found a tied-off condom that had a white powder on it, while bottles of laxatives were found in several areas.

Williams denied carrying the drugs and denied ingesting anything to transport the drugs, Brennan reported. Both admitted to being on methadone and that drugs had been sold at the apartment, although Rich claimed it was mostly to “hook our friends up,” according to the police report. Rich said that Williams did most of the selling.

The Special Enforcement Team is a three- or four-member team of police officers that focuses on concerns in the community from speeding and other traffic issues to drug investigations, Sgt. Bob Bishop said Thursday.