Three Portland men were arrested in the Scarborough Walmart parking lot Wednesday after a police officer found them in possession of a stolen, loaded weapon, a stolen motor vehicle, fentanyl powder, a large amount of counterfeit money, and an embosser machine used to manufacture counterfeit credit cards.

They were arrested around 1:45 p.m. after a Scarborough Police Department special enforcement officer stopped the vehicle. A check of the vehicle’s registration showed it had been stolen in North Carolina.

The officer “initiated a high-risk traffic stop while waiting for backup officers,” Scarborough police said Thursday in a post on the department’s Facebook page.

Arrested were: 19-year-old Ibekendu Ellenton-Ogugua Mokeme, 23-year-old Jeffrey Devon Silvia and 22-year-old Adrian Candelaria. Each faces a charge of theft by unauthorized use of property or motor vehicle theft, as well as violation of bail conditions.

Mokeme was charged separately with aggravated forgery while Silvia was charged with theft by receiving stolen property – the .22-caliber handgun.

Scarborough police said Silvia was carrying the pistol in his pocket and was also carrying 11.7 grams of fentanyl powder.

Mokeme had 30 counterfeit $100 bills in his pocket. The embosser machine was found in the trunk of the vehicle.

“The Secret Service is now assisting with this case and additional federal charges are likely forthcoming,” Scarborough police said in the news release.

The Secret Service and Windham police are also investigating a Windham business and its associates in connection with a counterfeiting scheme that may have produced tens of thousands of dollars in fake bills used to buy heroin and cocaine. They searched Ron’s Auto Sales and an apartment in Windham in April.

Dennis Hoey can be contacted at 791-6365 or at:

[email protected]