CLAREMONT — Police charged two New York men with being “drug enterprise leaders” after alleging the men bought drugs there and sold them from two School Street apartments in Claremont for years.
Christopher Fields, 40, and Antwaun Tucker, 42, each pleaded not guilty Tuesday to the charges, which also include selling and possessing drugs and being a felon in possession of a firearm. A Sullivan County Superior Court judge ordered the men to remain in custody until a trial, noting the severe nature of the drug enterprise charge, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years to life in prison.
The charge is uncommon for the area, according to Sullivan County Assistant Attorney Justin Hersh. He said it’s reserved for offenders who are at the “top of the food chain” and overseeing management and finances in a drug sales operation.
Police arrested Fields on Monday following a monthlong investigation, which included several undercover drug sales, authorities said. During the investigation, they learned he had been traveling to New York City once a week by bus or train to buy heroin and cocaine, which he and Tucker would sell from their School Street apartments, according to an affidavit written by Detective Justin Logan of the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Drug Task Force.
After his arrest, Fields told officers he had an “expensive lifestyle,” and sometimes invested the profit from his sales in gold bars, which he hid in a “safe place,” the affidavit said.
Police arrested Tucker and searched the School Street apartments, where they found $13,800 and four guns wrapped in trash bags, including a Century Arms semi-automatic rifle, two pistols and a 9 mm Glock pistol that had been reported stolen from Keene, the affidavit said.
Investigators said Fields has been selling drugs in Claremont for six years, calling him the “largest and most consistent supplier” of heroin and cocaine in the area, according to the affidavit.
Anna Merriman can be reached at amerriman@vnews.com or 603-727-3216.