Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office deputies recently assisted Maine Drug Enforcement Agents in an investigation that resulted in the seizure of 2.5 pounds of bath salts in the past week from Waterville and Thomaston.
Drug agents said the contraband was intended for sale in Knox County.
Travis Griffin, 26, of Thomaston was served a summons yesterday for unlawful trafficking in synthetic hallucinogenic drugs (bath salts). Griffin was served the paperwork at the Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset, where he is being held on a previous bath salts arrest last month in Waterville, and for a probation violation.
MDEA Supervisor James Pease said drug agents searched a house in Thomaston and a vehicle in Waterville Dec. 9 and discovered the 2.5 pounds of bath salts, which has a street value of $170,000.
Agents found 1.5 pounds hidden at a vacant house Griffin and his family own on the Old County Road in Thomaston. Also Dec. 9, agents searched a Jeep Griffin was a passenger in when Waterville Police stopped the vehicle for a traffic violation just before Thanksgiving. Waterville Police arrested Griffin and two others on charges of bath salts trafficking.
The bath salts seized in Waterville Dec. 9 were found hidden inside a video game console, in the passenger compartment of the Jeep, which police had impounded following the arrests.
Pease said Griffin was part of a major distribution ring of bath salts in Knox County. In addition to Thomaston Police, which assisted in the search of Griffin’s house, drug agents also were assisted by the sheriff’s offices in Knox and Lincoln counties and by Waterville and Rockland police.
Pease said additional arrests are expected in the near future as the investigation continues.
