DURHAM – Authorities are refusing to comment on a police affidavit fingering a member of the Sigma Beta fraternity, which was raided in the fall, as the marijuana supplier to a fellow fraternity brother indicted this month on drug charges.
The affidavit, prepared by a detective with the state Attorney General’s Drug Task Force, says an undercover officer went to the Sigma Beta house on Madbury Road in August to buy drugs from David Mason, who was indicted in Strafford County Superior Court on four counts of felony drug sales.
While the officer was at the Sigma Beta house, a fellow fraternity brother named Matt asked Mason how much marijuana he had sold.
“Matt then commented that Mason can only sell because he (Matt) has the connection,” the affidavit says. “Matt went on to say that Mason was just a dealer and he (Matt) was the muscle and the brains.”
Matt’s last name isn’t listed in the affidavit, but the document says a criminal informant told police Matt is a Sigma Beta brother who lived at the fraternity house and is originally from Rhode Island. The informant also identified Matt’s vehicle to police, who noted it had Rhode Island plates, according to the affidavit.
The affidavit was used as proof to obtain a search warrant that led to a raid at Sigma Beta on Sept. 30 and the arrest of nine fraternity brothers. Mason is the only one arrested who has been indicted on felony charges.
Detective John Lepkowski, who signed the affidavit, would not speak about the case.
Matthew Bessette, of Lincoln, R.I., was charged with misdemeanor possession of alcohol and drugs, which was reduced to possession of alcohol. He pleaded guilty to that in Durham District Court yesterday morning in a deal with prosecutors that allowed the drug charge to be put on hold pending six months of good behavior and 20 hours of community service. Bessette received a $300 fine for the alcohol possession.
Bessette refused to discuss the affidavit yesterday.
“I’m not saying I am him, I’m not saying I’m not him, I’m just saying I have no comment,” he said.
University of New Hampshire police, who prosecuted the case, also would not comment about the affidavit.
When officers searched Bessette’s room, they came up with a laundry list of drug paraphernalia, according to an inventory filed in court. Seized items include rolling papers, a scale, two boxes of sandwich bags and several baggies filled with “vegetative matter.”
The list does not say precisely how much “vegetative matter” was recovered.
Deputy Strafford County Attorney Hope Flynn said this week she had no deal with Bessette and the case was being handled by UNH police because there were no possible felony charges involved.
UNH officials confirmed yesterday that Bessette is still a student at the school.
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Three men have been arrested in a Washington County Narcotics Task Force probe in Forest Lake. Authorities also seized 62 pounds of khat, a leafy controlled substance narcotic, during a joint effort with the Forest Lake Police Department.
The drugs were seized and the arrests were made at 1:40 p.m. on Tuesday at the UPS Store, 2009 W. Broadway Ave. where officers from the two police agencies converged.
During the arrest, police recovered 62 pounds of the drug and found additional boxes containing the drug in a rented Ford Explorer the three men were driving. The khat had been packed in 225 bundles making up the 62 pounds, authorities said.
Chief of Police Clark Quiring said authorities believe the Forest Lake store was being used as a drop point for illegal drugs that are being smuggled into the country.
Quiring said the drugs recovered in Forest Lake on Tuesday had street value ranging in price from $8000 to nearly $12,000.
“Certainly, this is a pipeline to downtown Minneapolis,” Quiring said. “They are using our community as a passing zone.”
The three men arrested are all from Minneapolis.
•Abdimajid Said, 33, of 1819 Elliot Ave. S.
•Abdikarin M. Suleiman, 26, of 1600 S. 6th St.
•Jamal M. Ibrahim, 28, of 2500 Blaisdell Ave. S.
All three were booked in the Washington County Jail, Stillwater, on probable cause of felony fifth-degree possession of a controlled substance.
Khat is a leafy substance that is grown largely in Eastern Africa. Police said that the leaves are harvested, wrapped in banana leaves and shipped in bundles to the West. In many cases in the past, Quiring said, authorities in the United States have intercepted drugs that were shipped from England.
The arrests were made without incident and authorities received cooperation from store employees, Quiring said.
The investigation was carried out by two members of the drug task force who were assisted by four Forest Lake officers, Quiring said.
Quiring said it is possible that the other boxes of drugs found in the vehicle had been picked up earlier in the day from other stores.

Authorities in the Fox Valley say they’re becoming increasingly concerned that armed robbers are targeting prescription drugs instead of money as the value of the medications increases.
The robbery of a Neenah pharmacy Tuesday was the latest in a string that includes the targeting of two homes in Grand Chute in recent months. Winnebago County Dist. Atty. Christian Gossett said he expects to charge two 25-year-old men today in connection to the drug robbery at Walgreens, 1191 Westowne Drive
Drug seizures show the demand for prescription drugs has grown. Fox Cities drug agents seized 2,060 doses of pharmaceutical drugs in 2007, an increase of more than 1,800 percent from the 108 doses seized in 2003.
“It’s the number one threat we have where the abuse situation is concerned,” said Brad Dunlap, commander of the Lake Winnebago Area Metropolitan Enforcement Group Drug Unit.
Though FBI uniform crime statistics don’t have a separate category for pharmacy robberies, the Fox Valley has seen an uptick in robberies, and prescription drugs seem to be the target of more of them.
Winnebago County experienced 41 armed robberies in 2007 — a record — and at least seven of them hit pharmacies. That same year, Kimberly Pharmacy and the Walgreens on Appleton’s S. Oneida Street also were robbed.
Neenah Police Lt. Jeff Malcore said he hadn’t heard anything Wednesday that would suggest the Neenah and Grand Chute cases are related. He declined to name the suspects or the drug stolen.
Grand Chute Lt. Jerome Martin couldn’t be reached for comment.
Dunlap said it’s more difficult to connect prescription drugs to distribution trails. If police find a person with marijuana, it’s obvious he is in possession of an illegal drug. If a person is found with prescription drugs, it’s much harder to know whether the medications are part of an illegal distribution scheme.
“They’re legal drugs that can be used for legitimate means,” he said. “There’s really no triangle or ladder to a crime source when it comes to these substances.”
Jim Collar writes for the Appleton Post-Crescent and can be reached at 920-993-1000, ext. 216, or

A San Luis Obispo man was arrested late Friday after police say he sold cocaine and Ecstacy to undercover officers at a downtown nightclub.
David Michael Lamberson, 36, was arrested about 11:30 p.m. in the 700 block of Higuera Street. Officers from the San Luis Obispo County Narcotics Task Force, who arrested Lamberson after a two-month investigation, said he had been selling the drugs at clubs in downtown San Luis Obispo.
Officers served a search warrant at Lamberson’s residence, where they reportedly seized money and narcotics. His two young children living in the home were taken to Child Welfare Services, police said.

About $11,000 in cash was recovered along with the drugs; no weapons were found. Police are consulting with federal authorities to determine the next steps in the investigation.
Officials said the largest cocaine seizure previously made by city police was 60 pounds in 2006. Yesterday’s take was not a record for drugs found in Baltimore, however; federal agents seized more than a ton of cocaine, worth $25 million, from an East Baltimore warehouse in 1997. Five years earlier, agents found 1,000 pounds hidden in 55-gallon drums of glycerin at the
Marine Terminal.
Still, officials said the seizure shows that while police have recently emphasized curtailing gun crimes and gun offenders, they continue to aggressively investigate drug trafficking.
Department of Justice described cocaine trafficking as the leading drug threat to the United States. Availability decreased in many areas during the first half of 2007 and remained below 2005 and 2006 levels in many drug markets through mid-2008. Prolonged shortages occurred in many markets, according to the report.
The Mid-Atlantic region is listed among those regions that have continued to experience decreased availability. Cocaine is considered to account for about half of the “drug threat” in the region, with heroin accounting for about 25 percent.
“Cocaine is presently one of the most abused drugs in the Baltimore metropolitan area,” Bealefeld said. “This seizure is important on many levels in that it gets right to the root of some of the city’s major crime problems and takes a considerable amount of drugs off our streets.”
student Daniel Gross contributed to this article.
baltimoresun.com/crime

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SWAT teams swept across Denver Tuesday seizing drugs, weapons and arresting more than a half-dozen men police said are members of a notorious gang.
The bust focused on a notoriously violent gang known as MS-13. The FBI said MS-13 operates with a mob mentality, dealing drugs and retaliating against anyone who crosses them.
“Mobsters without borders,” Dan Roberts, with the FBI, called the gang.
Police took down eight members of MS-13 Tuesday morning, seven in Denver and one in Los Angeles.
Those in custody include Gerardo Lopez, 31, of Denver, and Jose Garcia-Sanchez, 26, of suburban Aurora. Both face charges of conspiracy to distribute, possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin and marijuana.
Some of those arrested Tuesday go by the names of “Pee-Wee,” “Clever,” and “Danger.”
Denver Police Deputy Chief of Operations Michael Battista said authorities wanted to stop the gang before it sank deep roots in Denver.
“In taking down these members of MS-13, we did accomplish that,” he said.
This particular gang started in El Salvador and has ties to drug trafficking, according to the FBI. They immigrated to Los Angeles and eventually to Denver because they reportedly viewed Denver law enforcement as “soft.”
It has an estimated 7,000 to 10,000 members in 42 U.S. states, said Washington-based FBI Deputy Assistant Director Daniel D. Roberts.
Roberts said FBI agents in El Salvador helped develop intelligence that led to the Denver indictments. The investigation will expand to Belize, Honduras and Guatemala, where the gang also operates, he added.
Officers said they seized 10 pounds of meth and 2.3 kilos of cocaine.
This bust is the culmination of a three-year investigation. During the investigation, authorities discovered that MS-13 was allegedly smuggling drugs into a California prison known as the High Desert State Prison.
Acting U.S. Attorney David Gaouette said the three-year probe initially focused on an MS-13 clique called the Normandy Locos.