Michelle Provencher (also known as Michelle Hall), 24, originally of Irasburg, was arrested and held in federal custody on Friday, January 13, following the search of a rented Airbnb residence in Westmore.
Two Massachusetts residents identified as Nathaniel Jamal Jones (also known as “JJ”), 36, and Jermaine Douchette, Jr. (also known as “Bear”), 42—both previously of Springfield, Massachusetts—were also arrested at the rental property. All three were fugitives who had active federal warrants for their arrests.
They had been indicted in December for conspiring to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine and fentanyl between August 2022 and October 26, 2022. Jones and Douchette face additional counts for specific distributions of controlled substances. Jones and Douchette had previously been charged in a criminal complaint relating to those charges on October 24, 2022.
The conspiracy involved at least seven individuals who agreed with one another to deal drugs in Vermont. Court records say Jones and Douchette distributed controlled substances from the Barton residence of codefendant Erika Desormeaux.
Investigators arranged the purchase of cocaine and fentanyl from the defendants on multiple occasions between August and October, and most of those transactions occurred at the Barton residence. The conspirators also acquired and possessed firearms during the investigation and attempted to acquire firearms through straw purchases, police say.
Categories: Drugs and Crime
And now what? Sarah George is crying her eyes out thinking of all the injustices they have faced?
The NEK seems to be a current hot spot for drugs and related crimes. Hope more attention is paid to it. Of course it’s not Chittenden County so does it actually matter? But between it being so rural so that it’s easy to use a home to sell drugs out of and the lack of police presence, it appears that this is very enticing to people from MA, CT, NY etc- and not for skiing!
Just like with booze and cigarettes, addictive products need to be widely available.
The gangs aren’t afraid of doing business in Chittenden County…their favorite “prosecutor” rules the roost there and poses little danger to them. Police are scarce everywhere in Vermont thanks to the whole BLM hating on the police thing. Essex County VT is leading the state in per-capita overdose deaths though…congratulations!
The story is the same but the rental accommodations have changed. The scenario is typical: organized gang members from southern New England ply local woman with drugs and money and get them to rent an apartment/house and then they use it as a base of operations. They recruit individuals with clean records to straw purchase firearms to bring back to their gang-infested hellholes like Springfield MA and Hartford CT. They get busted and the cycle repeats itself as fresh gang members are sent up here. Since an apartment is more complicated, often requiring a lease with references and a deposit, the AirB&B becomes the desirable alternative for short-term commerce in street pharmaceuticals and allows them to move around more easily.
Good to see the Feds handling this as Vermont district prosecutors typically fall for the sob stories about “we can’t keep locking up our young, Black men” and “we can’t arrest our way out of a drug problem”. 210 Vermonters died last year from overdoses.
Vermont prosecutors need to ask themselves: is that the price we should be willing to pay for political correctness and woke race hysteria?
Rich Lachapelle-Spot on!
Had a bunch of dealers rent an airbandb next door to us , found bags of drugs on the driveway, they put black sheets over the windows and were brazen about coming and going at all hours of the night and day, literally carrying scales into the house. The owner told me the dealer renter had a 5 star review, so I sent him her arrest article from bringing 700 bags of heroin into the state. No consequence for the dealers, great business model airbandb!