WATERVILLE — Four people accused of fabricating a drug deal in order to rob a man at gunpoint in the South End last week were arrested in the city over the past week.
According to court documents, the robbery allegedly was planned in retaliation after a previous drug purchase wasn’t paid for.
Emily Buker, 25, of Fairfield, Aaron Cayford, 33, of Skowhegan, and Paul Bragdon, 36, and Anthony Cruzado, 30, both of Waterville, have been charged with robbery, stemming from an alleged conspiracy to fake a cocaine purchase in order to rob a man on Summer street last week. Cayford was arrested March 18, the day after the alleged robbery, and Buker and Cruzado were arrested at Curzado’s Pooler’s Park Way residence Tuesday afternoon. Bragdon was taken into custody Wednesday morning.
Robbery is a class A felony criminal offense that carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and a $50,000 fine. No other charges are expected, and police said they didn’t find any illegal drugs during the course of their investigation, Rumsey said.
The man who said he was robbed initially believed he was threatened with a handgun, but investigators don’t believe a gun was used, Deputy Chief Charles Rumsey said in an interview Wednesday.
The arrests come close on the heels of another drug-related robbery in the city, in which two women were accused of threatening a man with a kitchen knife and demanding drugs and money.
People who are robbed in connection with drugs typically are unlikely to ask police for help, Rumsey said.
“We know about these two in the past couple weeks, but we know there are more,” Rumsey said. “It highlights the seriousness of the drug problem in our community.”
According to an arrest affidavit for Buker filed Tuesday by Detective Jason Longley in Kennebec County Superior Court, a Waterville resident, identified in the affidavit by his first name, Scott, reported the robbery early in the morning on March 17 to an officer at the Colby Street police station.
According to the affiddavit, Scott told police he drove Cayford to Fairfield so that Cayford could sell Ritalin, a brand name for methylphenidate, a prescription drug used to treat attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder. After the sale, Scott asked Cayford if he knew where to buy some cocaine, and Cayford allegedly got in touch with Buker to organize a sale.
According to police, the two men picked up Buker in a parking lot on Elm Street, then drove to an apartment on Summer Street, where Buker and Cayford allegedly exited the vehicle in order to get cocaine for Scott. Scott told police he gave Buker $100 for the purchase.
In the affidavit, police say Scott waited 20 minutes before two men came up to the car and said they were going to complete the cocaine transaction. Scott said he knew one of the men as Ant, who he knew as Buker’s boyfriend, and had bought drugs from him before. He did not know the other man, who was later identified as Bragdon, according to the affidavit.
Ant and Bragdon got into the car and told Scott to drive south on Summer Street, the affidavit said. Near the intersection with Grove Street, Ant allegedly told Scott to pull the car over, then told Bragdon, who was in the back seat, to “pull the gun on him,” according to the affidavit. Ant then allegedly took $100, a driver’s license, a set of headphones and a cellphone from Scott and told him that they knew where he lived and he “better not snitch,” the affidavit states.
In the affidavit, Longley said he knew Ant was Anthony Cruzado and suspected Cayford was involved in the scheme to rob Scott.
In a recorded telephone conversation between Cayford and Scott, Longley said, Cayford said that the person who robbed Scott was angry over a missing $200 allegedly linked to a previous drug purchase Scott was involved in.
Scott “informed me that this incident now made more sense as he had driven another friend to make a purchase of cocaine a few weeks ago, and this ‘friend’ never paid for the product,” Longley said in the affidavit. Scott said he wasn’t aware his friend was not going to pay for the drugs until after that transaction and did not know if it was bought from Anthony or Aaron, Longley added.
On March 18, the day after the robbery, Cayford was taken into custody and questioned at the police station, according to the affidavit. During the interview, Cayford allegedly told Longley that he had been hanging out with Cruzado and another man, Carlos, when Scott called to him to try to sell the Ritalin.
According to Longley, Cayford said Cruzado asked if Scott was the same man who “ripped them off” in the previous drug deal and agreed to let Cruzado know where Scott ended up, but allegedly said he thought Cruzado only wanted to talk to the victim.
Peter McGuire — 861-9239
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