Several officers from Augusta Police and the Kennebec County Sheriff’s Office responded to MD’s Market on Riverside Drive Friday afternoon. An Augusta officer said the agencies were assisting federal law enforcement. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal
AUGUSTA — A man was arrested by the FBI Friday afternoon at a gas station in Augusta for distributing controlled substances.
Alvaro “Santos” Annover Motera Arias was arrested at MD’s Market at 240 Riverside Drive, near the road’s intersection with state Route 3, according to an FBI affidavit filed Saturday at U.S. District Court in Bangor.
He is facing charges related to knowingly and intentionally distributing and possessing with the intent to distribute controlled substances, namely a mixture of methamphetamine, its salts, isomers, and salts of its isomers, and a mixture of controlled substances containing N-phenyl-N propanamide, more commonly known as fentanyl.
The probable cause affidavit alleges that Arias sold substances to confidential sources set up by the FBI between May and June, included 500 grams of fentanyl on more than one occasion.
Additionally, Arias on two occasions allegedly held “two brief meetings” believed to be drug transactions in a gas station bathroom in Augusta. The gas station was not named in the affidavit.
The FBI could track Arias and the alleged transactions by monitoring his cell phone, the affidavit states.
On Friday, the FBI agent saw Arias’ cell phone leaving Canton, Massachusetts, and heading toward Augusta on Interstate 95. The FBI then called Augusta Police Department for assistance in arresting Aria for the two fentanyl transactions by the undercover agent.
A Kennebec County K-9 team assisted the FBI and Augusta police. The K-9 “detected the presence of controlled substances” on the driver’s side of Arias’ car that ended up being 92 grams of powder cocaine, 474 grams of fentanyl and 452 grams of methamphetamine, according to an FBI affidavit filed Saturday at U.S. District Court in Bangor.
The FBI declined to comment further on the arrest as it is now a pending case with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
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