BATH

Three individuals were charged with trafficking in heroin during a string of arrests starting Tuesday night.

Maine Drug Enforcement Agency agents, assisted by the Sa g adahoc County Sheriff ’s Department and Topsham and Bath police, arrested three people and charged them with one count each of trafficking in heroin.

Two men were arrested, identified as Derek Elliott, 21, of Brunswick and Joshua Neisius, 25, of West Bath. A 25- year- old woman, Dwan Russell of Topsham, also was arrested.

“I believe just this one sweep itself can have an impact,” Sagadahoc County Sheriff Joel Merry said. “It will have a ripple effect in the community and we’re glad of that.”

The three suspects knew each other but were selling the drug independently, according to the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency.

The investigation started about a month ago after agents and local police began to notice an “influx” of heroin in Sagadahoc County, according to a news release.

Drug agents said they seized about 6 grams of heroin from Neisius at his arrest. Russell was allegedly in possession of about 2 grams of heroin when arrested while Elliott was found in possession of about 1 gram of heroin. Sgt. Robert Ramsay and canine Marco of the Topsham Police Department assisted in the search for drugs.

All of the suspects are accused of selling heroin and possessing with the intent to sell.

A Sagadahoc County drug investigator said Elliott and Neisius were arrested separately Tuesday in the Energy North Clipper Mart parking lot on State Road in West Bath — Neisius at around 7:30 p.m. and Elliott at around 9:40 p.m.

Russell was arrested around midnight Wednesday in the parking lot of the Bath Area Family YMCA in Bath. Police said each was arrested while delivering heroin.

According to the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency, a gram of heroin may be converted into as many as 40 to 50 retail bags of heroin, which can sell for $25 to $30 each in Sagadahoc County. The combined street value of the seized heroin was $11,000.

All three suspects were taken to Two Bridges Regional Jail. Neisius’ bail was set at $2,500 cash; bail for Russell and Elliott was set at $1,000 cash. All three were expected to make an initial court appearance Wednesday.

Bath Police Chief Mike Field said Wednesday his department has a detective who serves as a Maine Drug Enforcement Agency resident agent, “which means we have a partnership with them to help us with drug investigations,” as does the Sagadahoc County Sheriff ’s Department.

Without this resource, Field said, “these kinds of cases would be extremely difficult to investigate.”

Field said the county is seeing an uptick in heroin since the end of 2012 “because we understand that oxycodone is very expensive” and heroin can be purchased more cheaply.

Merry said heroin, a major problem in the late 1990s, seems to be making a bit of a comeback as “we’re doing a better job I think of controlling the amount of oxycodone that’s on the street.”

“We haven’t totally quashed the supply side (for oxycodone) but we’ve really made some inroads there” by putting in place policies such as the prescription monitoring program, he said.

“But we’re not doing a good job of taking away the demand,” being filled by heroin, Merry said.

And unlike controlled substances, there is “absolutely no control when talking about these illicit street drugs, so how pure they are, what they’re cut with, all can make a difference.”

The heroin seized through these arrests was taken to the Maine Health and Environmental Testing Laboratory in Augusta for testing that could help police identify the supply line.

dmoore@timesrecord.com