A Casco man was arrested on drug and traffic charges in the early morning of Feb. 14 after he led police on a high-speed chase through a Hallowell neighborhood and crashed into a tree stump, police said.
Kennebec County Sheriff’s Deputy Elijah Curtis attempted to stop the man on Water Street at about 1 a.m. “after observing a disturbance,” but the man turned his 2006 BMW onto Central Street and reached about 105 mph while driving up the steep residential road, Chief Deputy Chris Read said in a news release Monday.
The man crashed his car into a stump near Shady Lane, where Read said he was still driving at about 100 mph. Curtis arrived at the scene and found the man had fled on foot.
Assisted by a Maine State Police K-9 unit, the man was found shortly thereafter in a car near Jamie’s Pond.
Read said police found two bags at the crash site — one in the vehicle and one nearby — that contained more than 2 pounds of cocaine and about a quarter-pound of cocaine base. Police also found more than a half-pound of fentanyl — enough for 141,000 potentially lethal doses of the drug.
The man was charged with aggravated trafficking of cocaine, aggravated trafficking of cocaine base, aggravated trafficking of fentanyl, eluding an officer, driving to endanger, driving over 30 mph over the speed limit, operating a vehicle without a license and leaving the scene of a crash.
He is being held at Kennebec County Jail on $60,000 bail.
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