A traffic stop Wednesday afternoon in Topsham led to the arrest of a an illegal alien on felony drug trafficking charges and the seizure of over 100 grams of fentanyl and crack cocaine, the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office announced Thursday.
According to the Sheriff’s Office, at about 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, deputies conducted a traffic stop in Topsham near the intersection of Main Street and Old Augusta Road.
While the initial cause for the traffic stop was the driver allegedly using a handheld device, deputies became suspicious when the male driver “claimed not to understand English but responded to every request by the deputy,” the Sheriff’s Office said.
A K-9 team then responded to the scene and conducted a drug sniff on the vehicle, which authorities say indicated the presence of drugs.
Deputies searched the vehicle and found a stash of illegal drugs concealed in the dashboard near the steering column, as well as a digital scale and glassine baggies in the trunk of the vehicle.
The Sheriff’s Office said the seized drugs totaled to 107.7 grams of fentanyl and 17.6 grams of cocaine base (crack cocaine).
The driver, 27-year-old Michael Colon-Guerrero, was arrested and charged with aggravated trafficking in schedule W drugs (Class A), and unlawful trafficking in schedule W drugs (Class B).
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) considers just two milligrams of fentanyl a potentially lethal dose, meaning Colon-Guerrero allegedly possessed enough of the synthetic opioid to kill about 50,000 people.
Colon-Guerrero was transported to Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset where his bail was set at $5,000.
A supervisor at Two Bridges Regional Jail told the Maine Wire on Friday that Colon-Guerrero has an active U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) immigration detainer lodged against him.
ICE files immigration detainers against unlawfully present noncitizens who have been arrested on criminal charges, and whom the agency has probable cause to believe are deportable from the U.S.
Detainers are a request from ICE to local law enforcement agencies that they temporarily hold the illegal aliens in custody and notify ICE upon their release, so that the aliens can be transferred to the custody of ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO).
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