Authorities searching the Chelsea home of a state employee arrested for selling food stamps on the black market discovered a cache of weapons, drug paraphernalia, and evidence that could link him to the crime, according to court documents released Tuesday.

In their raid of Steven St. Pierre’s mobile home late Monday, the Maine State Police found 29 weapons, at least eight of which were semiautomatic assault rifles or pistols. Police also found ammunition, assorted prescription drugs, 15 syringes, drug paraphernalia and fireworks, according to an inventory that was unsealed in federal court.

St. Pierre, 29, was arrested at work Monday morning and charged with one count of unlawful possession of food stamps. If convicted, he faces five years in prison and fines of up to $250,000.

According to the government, food stamps that could not be delivered were sent to the central mail room in Hallowell, where St. Pierre worked for the Maine State Postal Service. Mail room employees would then return the stamps to the Maine Department of Human Services, which governs the program for the U.S. government.

St. Pierre allegedly would steal the stamps from work and then sell the booklets to middlemen, who in turn would sell them on the black market. According to court documents, sources would buy $250 worth of stamps from St. Pierre for $100 and then sell them for $125.

One government source estimated that in three years he had sold as much as $500,000 worth of food stamps he had bought from St. Pierre. Officials at the state’s food stamp program, which doles out $9.5 million each month to 64,000 households, had been noticing monthly losses as high as $30,000.

In an affidavit filed in support of the search warrant, an investigator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which runs the program, said he expected authorities to find food stamps and records of trafficking, including lists of people who bought them.

Authorities had been tipped off to a possible black market by at least one woman who had called to say she had bought the stamps from St. Pierre, and an unidentified DHS client who indicated St. Pierre was selling food stamps to the client’s relatives. Yet another anonymous caller claimed that others were involved in the scheme.

Police then launched a sting operation, and were able to convince three of St. Pierre’s alleged middlemen to join the effort.

One of them, Roger Wheelock of Mount Vernon, recently pleaded guilty to charges that he and others robbed an Augusta company of computer chips worth more than $700,000. The chips were then sold on the black market in Maine and Massachusetts.

According to court documents filed in the St. Pierre case, Wheelock told investigators on May 2 that he had bought $67,000 worth of food stamps from Linda and James Sprague from January 1993 to September 1995.

By the end of May, police searched the Spragues’ property and allegedly found illegally possessed food stamps. The pair then agreed to cooperate with authorities and pointed the finger at St. Pierre, the court documents said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Woodcock, the government’s prosecutor on the case, declined to say whether others would be charged.

According to the documents, Sprague claimed that he first met St. Pierre about three years ago, when he and his wife attended a party at St. Pierre’s home. When Sprague asked St. Pierre how he could afford to feed T-bone steaks and other expensive foods to the 30 guests, St. Pierre allegedly replied, “food stamps.”

A nine-year veteran of state government, St. Pierre had worked in the warehouse, printing office, and, for the past five or six years, as a low-level mail clerk at the state postal service. In a financial affidavit filed with the court, he claimed to earn $250 a week.

Division of Purchases Director Richard Thompson, who operates the branch where St. Pierre has worked since March 1987, said St. Pierre’s responsibilities included driving mail from the postal center to various government departments.

St. Pierre allegedly told Sprague he and others took the food stamps from a box at work, according to the affidavit. The Spragues claimed to have last purchased stamps from St. Pierre’s girlfriend, Lori, during a May 18 meeting on the Cony Road in Augusta.

Other sources claimed to police that St. Pierre sometimes would sell the stamps during noontime meetings at an apartment building at the corner of State and Bond streets in Augusta. In February, police followed St. Pierre as he entered the building and noticed an elderly man who “appeared to be conducting countersurveillance.”

The Spragues, according to the court documents, typically called St. Pierre and essentially placed an order for a batch of stamps, usually 10 books at a time. It was Sprague who estimated he had sold between $250,000 and $500,000 worth of food stamps he had purchased from St. Pierre.

After selling the stamps, the Spragues would repay St. Pierre, the documents said. The sting continued on June 17, when Mrs. Sprague, under the direction of state and federal agents, allegedly purchased $750 worth of stamps for $300.

During a hearing in U.S. District Court Monday afternoon, St. Pierre was released on an unsecured $25,000 bond. Thompson said St. Pierre did not return to work Tuesday, although he remained, at least for now, an employee of state government.

So far, Thompson said, St. Pierre appears to be the only one of the mail room’s 17 employees being investigated for the alleged food stamp ring. Thompson declined to comment on possible personnel action against St. Pierre until the case is resolved, but did say he would no longer handle mail.

“I hope to resolve this in the next couple days,” Thompson said, adding he hoped to interview St. Pierre about the case.

Thompson also said there is no indication that the food stamp case is related to an investigation into missing items from the state surplus property room, which also operates within the Division of Purchases.

“I don’t think it is related whatsoever,” he said.

St. Pierre’s attorney, Wayne Foote of Bangor, would not say how his client would respond to the charges. If he doesn’t plead guilty, the charges against St. Pierre are expected to be presented to a federal grand jury next month.

“My plan is to vigorously defend the matter,” Foote said.