Drug-fueled crime hits rural state hard as leaders struggle to find solution
Maine has become a "wholesale distribution hub" for drug dealers in the Northeast, bringing a slew of crime to the rural state, a police chief told Fox News Digital.
The New England state, typically known for its rugged coastline and beautiful fall foliage, has gradually become filled with illicit drugs as more gangs establish themselves in the area. Chris Martin, police chief of the Brewer Police Department in Maine, told Fox News Digital that his area has turned into a distribution hub for illegal drugs.
"What we've seen in the past, particularly four years, is that our area has turned into a wholesale distribution hub. So, we have kilo quantities available of fentanyl and methamphetamine and cocaine. And that's a dramatic market shift that we hadn't seen 10, 20 years ago. So the supply has increased readily," Martin said.
Martin, who also serves as the town's public safety director, said the rise in illegal drugs has also brought a rise in crime. Since it's often costly to purchase street drugs, Martin said that individuals are turning to crime in order to fund their addiction.
"With that, we're also seeing the presence of organized crime. Street gangs out of New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, they're actually bringing the supply here," Martin said. "Drug addiction cause crime. And if you have a one or 200 or $300 a day habit, especially if it's an opioid like fentanyl, it doesn't take a day off. If you don't have the drug, you get sick. So how does anybody afford one, two, $300 day habits every day of the week? You invariably have to commit crimes."
Martin said those crimes include theft, prostitution, human trafficking, burglary and drug sales. He added that about 90% of the crimes that his officers are responding to "have a drug nexus."
"All of those things go hand in hand and the driving force is supplying this narco-economy, if you will," Martin said of the rise of illicit drugs in Maine. "All these things kind of make a perfect storm."
In Maine, implications are being felt throughout the state. On April 1, officials arrested two individuals in Dixfield who were allegedly in possession of "225 grams of cocaine and crack cocaine, 10 grams of fentanyl, assorted unidentified capsules and pills, three loaded firearms, and $ 4,350 in drug proceeds," officials told News Center Maine.
"I have never seen anything like what we're experiencing here in Maine."
In Bangor, Maine, 27-year-old Dylan Caruso was shot to death over $600 owed to another man for drugs in 2024, according to FOX 23.
According to the Connecticut Post, a convicted killer who was arrested in October 2024 in Maine was pulled over and allegedly found to be in possession of a loaded firearm and drugs. The individual, Cyrus Griffin, wasn't allowed to leave the state of Connecticut.
Maine Democratic Gov. Janet Mills said in September 2023 that fentanyl is responsible for 80% of all drug deaths throughout the state.
State lawmakers are divided on how to attack the illicit drug epidemic.
Republican State Sen. Brad Farrin, who lost his 26-year-old daughter to a drug overdose, proposed a bill in 2023 that would have reclassified the trafficking of fentanyl to a Class A felony. The bill was voted down, primarily by Democrats.
WATCH: Maine gubernatorial candidate discusses drug epidemic
Republican Bobby Charles, who is running for Maine governor and served in the former Bush administration as the Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, told Fox News Digital the state needs to get more serious about confronting this epidemic.
"I have never seen anything like what we're experiencing here in Maine. This state, when I grew up in this state, might have had five overdoses in the entire state. Last year, this state had 10,000 overdoses, and many of them fatal," Charles said. "I sit down beside people and they quietly lean over to me and say, this happened to me two days ago, I lost my daughter to fentanyl two years ago…Do you know what that devastation is like? It's huge and it is inexcusable. It is immoral and it has to be stopped."
Charles has placed the blame squarely on statewide Democrats and Mills, who, in his view, haven't done much to reduce the flow of illegal drugs into Maine.
"The traffickers have come into this state, and because the Democrats have cut the guts out of law enforcement, they have, in my opinion, betrayed them. There isn't a single situation in which a prosecutor feels like he has enough money or has the ability to prosecute these cases. They've been abandoned, OK?" Charles said.
"The bottom line is they're trying to turn Maine into inner city Chicago or the Badlands of Philly. And I am not going to stand for it. Mainers are not going to stand for."
Fox News Digital reached out to Mills' office for comment.
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