Two men were arrested on drug charges after separate search warrants were executed in Skowhegan and Norridgewock on Tuesday.

Around 8:50 p.m., Somerset County Sheriff’s Office deputies confronted Donald Banks, 25, of the Bronx, N.Y., after he left a taxi on East Front Street in Skowhegan, according to a release from Detective Lt. Carl Gottardi, with the sheriff’s office.

Using a search warrant, they found 90 oxycodone pills and 20 individual bags of crack cocaine on him.

Banks is charged with the felonies of trafficking in cocaine, trafficking in oxycodone, possession of cocaine and possession of oxycodone.

According to Gottardi, the Waterville and Skowhegan police departments were involved in the investigation, which determined that drugs were being brought to Maine from New York and distributed to people in the Waterville and Skowhegan area.

Earlier in the day, around 11:15 a.m., the sheriff’s office executed a separate search warrant at the Norridgewock home of Dakota Turcotte, 19, where police found marijuana and narcotics.

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At the home on U.S. Route 2, they found approximately one pound of processed marijuana, 15 growing marijuana plants, oxycodone pills, Suboxone pills, several firearms, cultivation equipment, drug-related paraphernalia and cash, Gottardi said.

The marijuana plants were in a room devoted to growing them, Gottardi said.

A male juvenile at the home was also arrested on an outstanding warrant, and Turcotte was charged with trafficking in oxycodone, trafficking in marijuana, possession of oxycodone, possession of marijuana and cultivation of marijuana.

Banks remained at Somerset County Jail on Wednesday on a bail of $25,000 cash or $50,000 surety. Turcotte bailed Tuesday on $5,000 cash.

Erin Rhoda — 612-2368

erhoda@centralmaine.com


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