By Bruno Matarazzo Jr., Foster’s Daily Democrat (New Hampshire)
CONCORD, N.H. - Details of the investigation leading up to the state’s largest marijuana bust by police give an inside look at how the drug trade operates in the region.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced the arrest of two Seacoast men and the seizure of 480 pounds of marijuana, $229,000 and a number of firearms, including an Uzi and another semi-automatic assault weapon.
Members of the state Attorney General’s Drug Task Force arrested Michael Croteau, 50, of Rye, on Nov. 16 and he now faces federal charges of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and possession of a firearm regarding drug trafficking.
Two weeks later, Farmington police arrested Robert Vennard, 55, of Berwick, Maine, after officers learned he was storing 400 pounds of marijuana in a friend’s barn in town.
Vennard faces a single charge of drug possession with intent to distribute in state court.
Foster’s Daily Democrat first reported the arrests on Dec. 7.
“The significance of the arrests lies largely in the nature of the weapons found,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark E. Howard said at the press conference. “We haven’t seen an arrest of this size in many years.”
Farmington Police Chief Scott Roberge and Sgt. Myron Crossley were both on hand at the press conference.
Roberge credited the bust to good police work and a good relationship Crossley had with an informant.
The events which led up to Wednesday’s press conference began in early November, when members of the Drug Task Force made a number of street-level drug purchases in Lee, according to a U.S. District Court affidavit unsealed Wednesday.
That dealer agreed to cooperate with police and identified his drugs’ source as coming from the Dover area. For the past 10 years, the dealer in Lee would purchase one pound of marijuana per week from the Dover source, paying between $1,500 and $1,950 for every pound of the drug.
Police got a search warrant and eventually found $229,295 in the source’s Dover home and truck, in addition to a small amount of marijuana and a box of marijuana seeds and stems.
The source, who has not yet been charged with a crime, voluntarily forfeited the cash to the state of New Hampshire and a portion of the money will ultimately be returned to Dover and Farmington police, according to Dover Police Chief William Fenniman, who also heads the Drug Task Force.
The source in Dover soon identified his dealer as Croteau, who lives in an apartment on Ocean Boulevard in Rye above a pizza restaurant and is building a new home on Smoke Street in Barrington.
The Dover source and Croteau have been operating for the past 10 years, according to the affidavit, beginning with deals involved half-pound quantities every three weeks throughout the 1990s.
Five years ago, the amount rose to 10 to 20 pounds every three weeks. The Dover source told police he purchased about 40 pounds per month - 400 pounds so far this year - at a rate of $1,525 per pound. The 400 pounds is valued at $610,000.
The Dover source arranged pick-ups by calling Croteau’s cell phone a day in advance to arrange a meeting at one of a variety of places, including his Barrington and Rye addresses, Hilton Park in Dover and a mall parking lot in Newington.
In the affidavit, the source told police Croteau, who was extremely concerned about surveillance, would use a different vehicle each time, vehicles he either owned or would rent.
After the two met, they would get out of their cars and talk about various topics not related to drug trafficking and then make the exchange.
The police got the source to agree to take part in a wire tap of Croteau’s phone, then the source called Croteau to arrange a meeting to buy some marijuana.
On Nov. 16, a state police cruiser on the Spaulding Turnpike pulled over Croteau’s 1997 Ford F-250 pickup while he was on his way to make the alleged deal, at the request by the Drug Task Force.
According to the affidavit, police found six pounds of marijuana in a duffel bag in the bed of the truck and a .25-caliber semiautomatic handgun in a nylon bag in the cab. Croteau also had $2,742 in his pocket when he was arrested and $317 in a bag.
After Croteau’s arrest, authorities searched his Rye apartment and Barrington home and found 80 pounds of marijuana underneath a motor home in Barrington and in the wall studs of the home under construction in the same property, as well as guns, including the Uzi.
In Rye, police found an additional pound of marijuana, $52,800 in cash and more guns. The money is in addition to the cash police announced Wednesday.
When Vennard learned of Croteau’s arrest, he became worried he would be arrested next and asked a friend in Farmington to hold his marijuana for him, according to a Rochester District Court affidavit for his arrest.
The affidavit said Vennard and Croteau were business partners and the two talked frequently while Croteau was being held at the Strafford County jail.
Once word spread of Croteau’s arrest, a person in Farmington contacted Crossley to tell him Vennard, a friend, was business partners with Croteau.
Vennard gave his friend in Farmington 400 pounds of the partners’ marijuana, which had been stored at Vennard’s camp in Sanford, Maine, according to the affidavit. The marijuana was stored in 13 cardboard boxes, wrapped in coffee grounds and axle grease to cover its odor.
When Crossley went to retrieve the marijuana on Dec. 3, he could barely fit all the seized drugs into the department’s Ford Expedition.
“There was so much of it we couldn’t store it,” said Roberge.
Howard, the assistant U.S. attorney, said the street value of the 480 pounds confiscated is $875,000.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office is prosecuting Croteau under the Project Safe Neighborhood initiative which mandates longer minimum sentences - 10 years - for crimes involving drugs and assault weapons.
Vennard’s case is being handled by Strafford County prosecutors. Both suspects are being held at the Strafford County jail but are being housed in separate areas, Howard said.