Three facing sales charges remain incarcerated after Concord drug raid

A drug raid of two Rollins Street rooming houses early Friday morning broke up what Concord police describe as “modern drug dens” where sellers and users from in and outside the city gathered at all hours of the day and night.

Officers had the homes at 5-6 Rollins St., under surveillance as part of an ongoing drug investigation and had continued to receive reports from residents in the neighborhood about drug use and drug-related activity in that section of downtown. Additionally, police said the call volume in that area had risen in recent months.

“This type of activity causes the degradation of neighborhoods and communities, especially when there is a dangerous combination of methamphetamine and fentanyl,” Concord police Lt. Sean Ford said in an interview. “We can’t keep letting them go arrest after arrest because they just return to the street and move onto the next neighborhood. We need to talk about the next steps in preventing this cycle.”

Three people facing the most serious charges stemming from Friday’s drug raid were still behind bars Tuesday. Cory Porter, 34, and Helmi Ryan, 46, resided in the two houses that face one another on Rollins Street. Ryan and Nathan Bond, 40, of Chichester each face sales charges, while Porter is accused of possessing heroin/fentanyl with intent to distribute.

Seven others were also taken into custody; most of them were charged with felony drug possession and released on bail conditions.

When police executed a search warrant at 5 Rollins St., on Friday about 3:30 a.m., they found Porter “frozen in place” at a table on which there was white powder consistent with being heroin or fentanyl, according to a sworn affidavit prepared by Concord police Detective Bryan Croft. Officers later seized a prescription-like container containing 20 grams of heroin/fentanyl and more than two grams of methamphetamine in Porter’s pant pocket, as well as a rubber container containing three grams of crack cocaine and a billfold containing a Suboxone strip. Porter had $794 in his wallet at the time, police said.

Porter was transported Friday afternoon to Merrimack County Superior Court in Concord for his arraignment but due to a medical issue was unable to proceed. On Monday, Judge Richard McNamara signed up on an agreement reached by attorneys to set bail in the case at $5,000 cash-only.

However, Porter is also being held on a parole violation and therefore will be returning to the New Hampshire State Prison for Men in Concord. City police, with the assistance of the U.S. Marshal’s Office, arrested Porter in 2012 in connection with an armed robbery of a couple outside the Residence Inn. Police said at the time drugs were involved.

Ryan resided in the home across the street from Porter at 6 Rollins St., which police also entered early Friday. Police said Ryan had previously sold drugs to undercover detectives and/or informants. She was arraigned Friday afternoon and remains in custody.

Police believe Bond was last living in Chichester, but he was on Rollins Street early Friday when police carried out the raid. He was taken into custody on a warrant charging him with drug sales.

According to an affidavit, Bond sold methamphetamine to a confidential informant three times in mid-December, including outside Walmart on Loudon Road, near Thirty Pines on Village Street in Penacook and at the Cumberland Farms on King Street in Boscawen.

Bond waived his arraignment Friday afternoon in Concord and entered pleas of not guilty. Bond remains in custody but his bail could revert to personal recognizance if he is deemed eligible for participation in the county’s pretrial services program.

Additional felony drug possession cases are also pending against six other area residents: Logan Locke, 21, of Northfield; Cory Decato, 34, of Danbury; Shane Demers, 28, of Pembroke; and Katie White, 25, Rebecca Taylor, 31, and Cyle Gancarz, 21, all of Concord.

Christopher Holland, 22, of Concord was charged with breach of bail and is scheduled to be arraigned June 3 in Concord’s district court.

(Alyssa Dandrea can be reached at 369-3319 or adandrea@cmonitor.com.)