New York defendant claims drug package wasn’t hers

BIDDEFORD – A New York suspect whom authorities say brought fentanyl into Maine with the intent to sell it on the day after Christmas is asking a federal judge to allow her to enter her not guilty plea in absentia from her home state.

Maine State Police say Jenny Santana-Vasquez, 32, of New York City, admitted to carrying an unknown substance that she allegedly claimed belonged to someone else when the vehicle she was driving was stopped by police on the Maine Turnpike in Biddeford on Dec. 26. Ultimately, she handed over a package that contained 103 grams of fentanyl.

In an affidavit on file at the U.S. District Court in Portland, U.S. Drug Enforcement Officer Justin Huntley wrote that the bag containing the drugs also contained coffee grounds – a tactic he said that is commonly used to disguise the scent of illegal drugs and reduce the effectiveness of a drug detection dog,

Santana-Vasquez was driving a white Jeep SUV northbound on the Maine Turnpike when she was pulled over by Maine State Police Trooper George Loder for a speeding violation. A man whom authorities did not name in the court documents was in the passenger seat.

The trooper discovered that Santana-Vasquez’s driver’s license was suspended,  and that the registration for the vehicle was suspended as well.

A drug detection dog indicated there was the scent of drugs on the vehicle and the woman and her passenger existed the vehicle while it was searched, but no drugs were found.

At the state police barracks, Santana-Vasquez later admitted she had a package in her possession, which she turned over to police. She allegedly claimed she did not know what the package contained and that she was carrying it for someone else. According to the affidavit, she was issued a summons on state charges of aggravated drug trafficking and released.

She is scheduled for arraignment on Thursday on a federal charge of possession with intent to distribute more than 40 grams of fentanyl in connection with the Dec. 26 incident. If convicted, she faces a minimum sentence of five years in federal prison and a maximum of 40 years.

According to a motion filed on her behalf by her attorney, J. Hilary Billings, Santana-Vasquez lives with her 79-year-old old mother and her three children, aged 13, 8, and 5, in a rent controlled apartment in New York City.

Billings said his client last worked two years ago as a home health care provider, earning about $400 a week. Currently, he wrote, she subsists on $200 every two weeks in welfare payments, receives $600 a month in food stamps, and $225 every two weeks for utilities. She does not own a vehicle.

“The expenses associated with a trip from New York to Maine for a five-minute court proceeding would constitute an undue financial burden, and her meager financial resources are the reason she asks the court to allow her arraignment in absentia,” Billings wrote in his motion.

Her lawyer said that Santana-Vasquez previously appeared in the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in connection with her arrest on Feb. 21.

Santana-Vasquez was released on an unsecured $50,000 personal recognizance bond at that time upon a condition that she appear in Maine for an initial appearance on Feb. 28. Billings said she voluntarily appeared in Maine when she was directed to do so, and was released by the Maine court with the same conditions as had been imposed in her New York court appearance.

A clerk at the federal court on Tuesday said a judge had not ruled on whether to allow Santana-Vasquez to be arraigned in absentia.

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 780-9016 or twells@journaltribune.com.