State drug agents charged three people this week in connection with an investigation of more than a month into one man’s illegal purchase of prescription drugs over the Internet.

A drug enforcement official said that cocaine and a variety of prescription drugs including hydrocodone, Ritalin and methadone, were seized and that hundreds of pills were being brought in weekly.

“We believe that this is going to significantly impact the availability of these types of drugs [illegally] available in the area, just because of the sheer volume that these guys were bringing in,” Supervisory Special Agent Garry Higgins of the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency said Friday.

Authorities charged Christopher Gelo, 29, of Bangor on Wednesday with trafficking in hydrocodone after Gelo went to pick up three packages containing nearly 500 pills he had purchased from online pharmacies and had sent to package delivery facilities, Higgins said.

Later on Wednesday, agents assisted by the Bangor Police Department searched the Bangor apartment Gelo shared with his girlfriend, Kylie Gray, 26. Armed with a search warrant, they seized more than $2,000 in cash, a small amount of cocaine in a prescription bottle, and many bottles bearing false names Gelo had used to obtain the drugs, Higgins said.

Gray, a sixth-grade language arts teacher at Central Middle School in Corinth, was charged with possession of cocaine and Ritalin pills. Higgins said investigators found a straw in the woman’s purse that tested positive for cocaine as well as the Ritalin pills, for which Gray did not have a prescription.

Officials from the middle school and SAD 64 school department could not be reached Friday for comment.

A third person, Gary Goodwin, 24, of Argyle, was charged with trafficking after he showed up at the couple’s Essex Street apartment while authorities were there. Higgins said Goodwin had with him 90 methadone pills in a plastic bag.

All three have been released on bail and are scheduled to appear Jan. 23 in 3rd District Court in Bangor.

State drug agents have been investigating Gelo for a month and a half. Higgins said Gelo received weekly shipments of prescription medications he bought from out-of-state pharmacies using false identification. Gelo made thousands of dollars each week by selling the medications he had purchased from pharmacies in Florida and other states, Higgins said.

For a year or more, Gelo used a number of false names to obtain the drugs, Higgins said. Gelo picked them up at the offices of the package delivery companies and paid with money orders.

As well as looking into additional charges and whether they will widen their investigation to include others, authorities are looking into how Gelo could get the medications so easily.

“It was done all over the Internet without him seeing any doctor,” Higgins said.