WATERVILLE — A resident convicted 15 years ago for drug trafficking faces charges after police arrested him Dec. 30 and seized more than 16 pounds of methamphetamine.
With a street value of more than $100,000, Waterville police Chief William Bonney said the seizure of illegal drugs is one of the largest in Maine history.
Waterville police, with help from the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency and Fairfield and Winslow police departments, searched several sites at about 4 p.m. Dec. 30 and seized the drugs as well as an illegal firearm, according to a Waterville Police Department news release.
Maj. Jason Longley, spokesman for that department, said Tuesday that police aren’t disclosing the search locations.
Police arrested Andrew Symonevich, 48, of Waterville, who was taken into custody without incident and charged with aggravated trafficking in scheduled drugs, a Class A crime, and illegal possession of a firearm, Class B. Bail was set at $35,000 and he made bail, Longley said.
Symonevich has an initial court date of March 26, according to police. They called him “the main source of the investigation.”
The investigation remains active and additional charges may be forthcoming, police said.
On Sept. 13, 2010, Symonevich was convicted by a jury in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts of conspiracy to distribute and possess, with intent to distribute heroin and cocaine in Lawrence and elsewhere in 2008.
According to the U.S. District Attorney’s Office for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Symenovich, then 33, was a Maine-based drug distributor living in Waterville.
He was arrested by Massachusetts State Police after he was found to be carrying a “fix-a-flat” tire sealant container with $3,000 worth of heroin inside.
During the three-day trial, the jury learned Symonevich was one of 149 people who bought more than 5 kilograms of heroin and 40 kilograms of cocaine from a Lawrence-based drug trafficking organization, according to the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s Office. A news release from that office in 2010 said a federal wiretap investigation included the recording of Symonevich making calls and identifying himself as “Dale’s man from Maine.”
During those calls, Symonevich “negotiated and arranged heroin and cocaine deals with the leader of the Lawrence-based drug organization,” the release said. “Symonevich bought the cocaine and heroin in Massachusetts and distributed it in Maine as part of the conspiracy.”
Bonney commended the dedication of investigators who “worked nearly around the clock to take this poison off the street.”
“Targeting these source level traffickers is our ultimate goal, as their illicit drugs have a direct effect on our community’s safety and happiness,” Bonney said in the release. “I am extremely proud of all of our folks whose hard work led to one of the largest illicit drug seizures in the State’s history.”
