A 25-year-old Edgecomb woman was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison March 4 after pleading guilty to felony charges of trafficking and importing heroin.
Stephanie M. Little pleaded guilty to class A aggravated trafficking of scheduled drugs and class C illegal importation of scheduled drugs during a hearing at Sagadahoc County Criminal Court in West Bath March 4, according to court documents.
Little is in custody at the Maine Correctional Center in Windham, according to the Maine Department of Corrections.
Little was sentenced to 3 1/2 years for the class C charge. She also has to pay a $400 fine. The court will impose sentence for the class A charge Feb. 24, 2016.
Class A crimes carry a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison. A class C crime carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
The Maine Drug Enforcement Agency and the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office seized 50 grams of heroin from Little and her boyfriend during a late-night traffic stop in Woolwich May 15, 2014, according to court documents and the prosecutor.
The Maine Drug Enforcement Agency started investigating Nikolas J. Buscanera, 22, of Westport Island, and Little in 2014 after receiving information that the couple was buying heroin in Massachusetts for resale in the Bath and Wiscasset area.
Agents observed a number of suspected heroin transactions and obtained a warrant to attach an electronic tracking device to Buscanera’s car. On May 15, the device showed the car depart Maine and stop briefly in Lynn, Mass., before returning to Maine.
Agents stopped the vehicle in Woolwich with the assistance of the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office.
Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office K-9 Brix “was in the process of performing a sniff of Little when she spontaneously said, ‘It is in the glove box,'” MDEA Special Agent Chad Carleton said in his affidavit. The glove box contained 50 grams of heroin.
A gram of heroin sells for approximately $140-$180 in Maine, according to Assistant Attorney General Jamie Guerrette, the prosecutor for the state. This figure would make the total value about $7,000-$9,000. Law enforcement also seized $770 from Buscanera.
Buscanera is under indictment for the same trafficking and importation charges. He is due to appear in Sagadahoc Criminal Court at 8:30 a.m., Wednesday, March 18.
Guerrette said he expects a plea in the Buscanera case too, possibly as soon as the March 18 hearing.
Little faces additional charges in Lincoln County in connection with allegations of drug use at Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset.
She allegedly tested positive for Suboxone while in custody at the jail Sept. 13, 2014, according to an affidavit by Paul Rubashkin, an investigator at the jail. She confessed to obtaining the drug from a fellow inmate and taking it, Rubashkin said.
A Lincoln County grand jury indicted Little on charges of class C trafficking in prison contraband and class E violation of condition of release Dec. 7, 2014. The class E charge is a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail.
Little has a court date on those charges at 9 a.m., Thursday, March 26.
