Thomas L. Nichols
A Kennebec County man has been sentenced to four years in prison for selling methadone in Waldoboro in October 2017.
Thomas L. Nichols, 50, of South China, pleaded guilty to one count of class A aggravated trafficking in schedule W drugs (methadone) on Monday, Nov. 5, according to court documents. In addition to his prison term, he must pay $515 in fines.
In exchange for his plea, the Maine Attorney General’s Office dismissed five lesser charges: one class C count each of heroin possession, oxycodone possession, and trafficking in prison contraband, and two class E bail violations.
Class A and C crimes are felonies. Class E crimes are misdemeanors.
The Maine Drug Enforcement Agency conducted a “controlled buy” of methadone pills from Nichols at a relative’s home in Waldoboro on Oct. 25, 2017.
Methadone is a synthetic narcotic, often used for treatment of heroin addiction but also addictive in itself, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
On Nov. 9, 2017, the MDEA and the Waldoboro Police Department arrested Nichols at another relative’s home in Waldoboro.
“I located a small baggie of suspected heroin in his pants pocket,” MDEA Special Agent Jason Pease said in an affidavit. “A loaded needle was located in his vehicle.”
Later, police found two oxycodone pills on the back seat of the police car. “Nichols admitted they were his,” Pease said.
At the time of the arrest, Nichols was free on bail after a June 15, 2017 arrest on another drug charge in Knox County.
He was arrested again April 8 of this year, at his home, on April 12, in Wiscasset, and on July 12, at his home, all three times for alleged drug-related bail violations.
The last time, Nichols was also charged in connection with a scheme to smuggle Suboxone and Subutex to jail inmates in the bathroom of a Belfast courthouse, according to the Kennebec Journal.
The status of the Kennebec and Knox County charges was not clear from Lincoln County documents, but the Maine Department of Corrections profile for Nichols lists only the Lincoln County conviction.
Nichols has a 1996 conviction for trafficking cocaine in Knox County, according to court documents. Nichols and another man were arrested after police stopped the car they were in for a traffic violation and, during a search, found a package containing 580 grams of cocaine.
Nichols is in custody at the Maine State Prison in Warren, according to the Department of Corrections.
Portland attorney William Maselli represented Nichols.
