Two Maine men who were arrested on drug charges last month in Massachusetts are due back in court on Wednesday.

Joshua Blodgett, 26, of Skowhegan, and Shane Lunt, 25, of Benton, were arrested Feb. 18 at a rest area on Interstate 495 in Haverhill, Massachusetts. The men allegedly possessed 101.1 grams of cocaine and 51.4 grams of heroin, a Massachusetts state police information officer said.

They were arraigned on charges of trafficking in heroin and trafficking in cocaine and bail was set at $50,000 each.

Carrie Kimball Monahan, director of communications at the Essex County District Attorney’s Office in Haverhill, Massachusetts, said in an email this week that bail was reduced to $5,000 at a bail review hearing.

Wednesday’s court appearance is for a probable cause hearing, Monahan said. The case has been assigned for indictment, meaning that a Superior Court assistant district attorney will investigate and present the case to a grand jury, she said.

Blodgett and Lunt were parked at a rest area in a Chevrolet Malibu, which wasn’t registered to either of them, when two state troopers assigned to the Newbury barracks came upon them about 3 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 18. The state police spokesman said both men appeared to be nervous and shaking.

He said a records check on the men showed previous arrests for drugs, which “threw up a clue to the troopers” that they might be involved in drug trafficking.

Blodgett also was charged with giving a false name to the troopers. Both men have been assigned lawyers.

Monahan said the penalty for trafficking in cocaine with more than 100 grams and less than 200 grams is eight to 20 years in state prison. For trafficking in heroin with more than 36 grams and less than 100 grams, the penalty is 3.5 to 20 years.

Local and state police continue to arrest people from New Hampshire and Maine who they say go to the Haverhill area to buy drugs and return to their states, where they can sell those drugs for a huge profit, according to published reports in Massachusetts.

Police say drug buyers are drawn to the Lawrence and Haverhill area because of the lower cost of drugs such as heroin.

Blodgett was sentenced to eight months in federal prison in July 2013 for his role in a conspiracy to distribute drugs from New York in central Maine.

He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and distribution of cocaine and oxycodone, as well as possession with intent to distribute oxycodone and aiding and abetting. Three years of supervised release, or federal probation, were to follow the prison term under the sentence imposed by Chief Judge John A. Woodcock Jr. in U.S. District Court in Bangor.

Blodgett had pleaded guilty to the two charges on Feb. 22, 2013, in the same court.

Doug Harlow — 612-2367

dharlow@centralmaine.com

Twitter:@Doug_Harlow