AUGUSTA — A city man arrested in late November 2016 on charges of aggravated trafficking in heroin pleaded guilty Friday to that charge as well as two others charging him with unlawful possession of drugs on different dates.
David B. Arbour, 56, was sentenced to serve an initial four years, with the remainder of the 10-year prison term suspended while he’s on probation for three years.
The offenses occurred Oct. 20, 2016, and July 3, 2015, in Augusta and Oct. 30, 2015, in Chelsea. He also pleaded guilty to three counts of violating conditions of release.
In exchange for his pleas, additional charges of aggravated trafficking in drugs and aggravated criminal operating under the influence were dismissed, as were charges of unlawful possession of fentanyl powder and trafficking in prison contraband.
Jail intake staff members reported Arbour had drugs in the form of loose white powder in his socks and a paper in his pants pocket containing a brownish powder residue when he was arrested on Nov. 28, 2016, and taken to the Kennebec County jail.
Brad Grant, an attorney representing Arbour, said Friday that while the powder in the socks initially tested positive for fentanyl, further testing showed it was not. Grant said Arbour told him it was Dr. Scholl’s foot powder.
The prosecutor, Assistant Attorney General Katie Sibley, said, “Some powder was determined to not contain a scheduled drug. Whether it was foot powder, I don’t know. Other powder was confirmed by the lab to be heroin.”
Arbour was convicted in May 2007 of two counts of aggravated trafficking in heroin and unlawful possession of heroin. In that incident, then-Kennebec County Sheriff Randall Liberty said Arbour had 20 bags of heroin, for a total of 800 doses.
Betty Adams — 621-5631
Twitter: @betadams
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