Laconia woman among those snared in police initiative

OSSIPEE — A Cross-Border Initiative between Carroll County and the state of Maine has resulted in the arrest of 35 individuals, including Velvet Weeks, 49, a transient from Laconia who was subject to an arrest warrant.

The operation was conducted to investigate and arrest individuals distributing illicit drugs in the two states. The majority of the arrests involved drug activity, with charges ranging from possession, sales, and conspiracy to sell narcotics to destruction of evidence, felony possession of firearms, child abuse, receiving stolen property, falsifying evidence, theft, and violation of bail. The drug-related charges involved fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, and marijuana.

Non-drug-related offenses included being habitual offenders, operating after suspension, disobeying a police officer, probation violations, bail violations, and theft. Weeks’ arrest fell into that category.

Among the drug arrests were Killian Dearborn and John Sharp of Tamworth, and Jason Shackford of Center Tuftonboro.

Like Weeks, Victoria Kerr of Tamworth was arrested on a non-drug-related warrant.

Conducted with Granite Shield funds and a grant through the COPS Anti-Heroin Task Force, the operation brought together members of the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office, police departments from Bartlett, Conway, Effingham, Freedom, Jackson, Madison, Moultonborough, Ossipee, Sandwich, Tamworth, Tuftonboro, Wakefield, and Wolfeboro, the Drug Enforcement Administration, Homeland Security Investigations, the Attorney General’s Drug Task Force, the New Hampshire State Police, Maine State Police, the Oxford County Sheriff’s Office, York County Sheriff’s Office, and Maine Probation/Parole.