WARREN — Three people remained at the Knox County Jail in Rockland Thursday following a brief car chase Wednesday during which one suspect was tossing crack cocaine out a window.

Chamara Cox, 31, of Rochester, N.Y., and Derrick Presha, 38, of Buffalo, N.Y., were arrested and charged with Class A aggravated trafficking in drugs.

The bail commissioner set bail at $50,000 cash for Cox and Presha.

Kenneth Judkins, 32, of Waldoboro, was arresed for violating a condition of release and refusing to submit to arrest. No bail was set for him, because he was on bail for a prior drug charge out of Lincoln County.

They are scheduled to make their initial appearances Friday in Knox County Unified Court.

The arrests came after a several-week investigation into a group of people from New York coming to the Midcoast to sell crack cocaine and heroin.

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Agents arrested Presha as he and Cox were conducting a drug transaction in a parking lot on Route 1 in Warren.

While Presha was being arrested, Cox took off in her rental car and was pursued by officers from the Knox County Sheriff’s Office and Waldoboro Police, according to Maine Drug Enforcement Agency Supervisory Agent James Pease. Cox was seen throwing out crack cocaine on Route 1 in Waldoboro, Pease said. Waldoboro Police were able to stop the car by Moody’s Diner and arrest her.

Agents seized four bags of crack cocaine on the floor of the car. Waldoboro Police, with the assistance of the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office canine, were able to recover the bags of crack cocaine that Cox had thrown out of the car.

With the assistance of Thomaston and Rockland police, as well as the Knox County Sheriff’s Office, agents conducted two consent searches at the suspects’ hotel rooms in Thomaston. A total of 50 grams of crack cocaine, of which 25 rocks of crack cocaine were packed for sale, six grams of heroin and about $3,000 in cash were seized. Cox was found in possession of three different New York driver’s licenses.

The Knox and Lincoln county sheriff’s offices, Maine State Police, Thomaston Police, Waldoboro Police and Rockland Police assisted in the investigation over the last couple of weeks.

This bust comes three weeks after a New York City woman and a Buffalo, N.Y., woman were arrested in Warren on charges of dealing crack and powder cocaine.


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