Auburn, Maine – The employees of a restaurant in Maine got a surprise when they opened a large wooden box that they thought was a shipment of mugs they had recently ordered.
Auburn Police Department via AP
Instead, they found a plastic bag containing what law enforcement suspected was 31 pounds of the strong synthetic substance. opioid effect Auburn Deputy Police Chief Timothy Cogley said in a statement Saturday that the fentanyl is valued at approximately $3 million.
The bag bore a shipping label with the address of the restaurant but the name of someone who didn’t work there. Cogley said the employees who opened it saw what they thought were drugs, so they called the police.
The box from Arizona that arrived in the Maine town about 30 miles north of Portland was taken to the police department, where a chemical field examination confirmed it contained fentanyl.
About an hour later, police said, the man whose name was on the shipment appeared looking for the box and was arrested.
Jeremy Mercier, 41, of Auburn, was charged with drug offenses and violating the terms of his bail. He was being held in the county jail without bail. It could not be determined whether he had a lawyer.
Cogley said Mercier spent time behind bars for a federal drug case in 2007.
The investigation is ongoing, and Cogley said he expects state and federal law enforcement to get involved.
Mike Peters, co-owner of Mac’s Grill, told WMTW-TV in an email that he’s glad the drugs haven’t hit the streets.
“The overdose cases in our communities and surrounding areas are horrendous, and fentanyl seems to be at the forefront when it comes to deaths,” he said. “It’s very sad.”
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