Staff Writer

A Scarborough resident who allegedly received regular shipments of oxycodone pills through a commercial delivery service was indicted on drug trafficking charges last week.

Shawn M. Tinsman, 35, now held in the St. Lucie County Jail in Florida, faces two Class A felony charges for drug trafficking and drug trafficking with a previous conviction.

Because he is now held in Florida, he did not attend a scheduled May 27 arraignment in Cumberland County Superior Court in Portland following the Cumberland County grand jury indictment. A new court date has not been scheduled, according to court records.

Tinsman, who listed his residence on Old Ocean House Road in Cape Elizabeth and his mailing address at a Flintlock Drive address in Scarborough, allegedly received 14 FedEx shipments in Scarborough from an address in Greenacres, Fla., from March 9 until he was arrested April 14, according to a report by Agent Regan Goan of the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency.

The Scarborough home is owned by Tinsman’s mother, Sandra Jordan, according to town tax records and Goan.

Shipments addressed to him April 13 and April 14 each contained 200 oxycodone tablets, Goan said. The total of about 4,500 milligrams in each shipment exceeds the legal minimum of 800 milligrams needed to establish intent to distribute.

Matthew Whitaker, an operations manager at the FedEx depot in Portland, alerted agents to the shipments, Goan said in the report. After noting the packages were of similar size and weights, Whitaker told agents he shook some packages and heard what sounded like pills inside.

On April 13, Whitaker opened a package, following what he said was corporate procedure to inspect suspicious shipments, Goan said. Inside were packages of pills Goan later determined were 15-milligram and 30-milligram oxycodone pills.

Oxycodone is the active ingredient in prescription painkillers including Oxycontin and Percocet, according to an MDEA press release.

Because agents could not immediately determine the pills’ composition, they instructed the delivery to be made to Tinsman and began surveillance on the Flintlock Drive house.

Goan said he examined shipping records and learned 13 packages from a woman named Michelle Martin addressed to Tinsman had been sent as often as three days in a row for about a month. Goan said he concluded the sender’s name was false.

Goan’s investigation of Tinsman turned up drug convictions in Maine and Florida. The indictment against Tinsman lists a 1995 trafficking conviction in Cumberland County Superior Court that Goan said resulted in a seven-year sentence.

At 7:30 the next morning, April 14, Goan said he got a call from Whitaker alerting him another package for Tinsman had been received. Goan said he sought a search warrant for agents to open the package and the search turned up more pills.

At about the same time as the search, agents watching the home on Flintlock Drive said they saw Tinsman pacing in the driveway as he talked on a cell phone. Traces of the calls made by Tinsman show he called a woman in Florida; he also called the Portland FedEx office to ask about the status of the delivery, Goan said.

While he wrote an affidavit to get a search warrant for the Flintlock Road home, Goan said an undercover agent delivered the package to Tinsman. Agents watching the home told Goan that Tinsman continued to come outside and pace in the driveway after the shipment was delivered, so he was detained until the warrant was signed.

According to Goan’s report, Tinsman told agents he had burned the package. He eventually turned over 430, 30-milligram oxycodone pills and 205, 15-milligram pills he had hidden in his underwear. After his arrest, he was released on $1,000 bail paid by Jordan, according to a letter she wrote to court officers May 6.

In the letter, she asked for a rebate of the bail money because Tinsman had been arrested in Florida.

Court records show Tinsman told family members he was going to check into a Lewiston hospital, but went to Florida instead. Online records at the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office show Tinsman was arrested April 21 for operating without a license and also was charged with possession of prescription drugs, according to the website.

Goan said he alerted Ft. Pierce, Fla., police officers of the charges pending against Tinsman in Maine and he is now held there on $165,000 bail.

Staff writer David Harry can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 219