Auburn Police received a call Wednesday reporting that a man in the area of 21 Center Street was displaying a firearm in his waist band.
The caller provided police with a detailed description of the male suspect and the firearm.
Upon arrival, Auburn Police officers searched the area and found a homeless encampment, where they located a man who matched the caller’s description.
Police identified the suspect as Gabriel Sanchez, 40, with a last known address in Lewiston.
Sanchez has a lengthy criminal history with several felony convictions, according to a Thursday Auburn PD press release, which bars him from legally owning a firearm.
His most recent conviction was for the illegal possession of a firearm in 2022, when he was sentenced to 15 months in prison.
A search warrant for Sanchez’s tent was then drafted and executed by officers.
In the tent, officers found a Canik 9mm handgun, five grams of fentanyl powder, and other narcotic equipment.
Sanchez was arrested and charged with class C Illegal Possession of a Firearm and class C Unlawful Possession of Scheduled “W” Drugs.
In Maine’s criminal statutes, schedule W drugs include cocaine, methamphetamine, oxycodone, hydrocodone, hydromorphone, and fentanyl powder.
[RELATED: Mills Touts Opioid Policies as Overdoses in Maine Total Almost 6,000 This Year…]
Sanchez was transported to the Androscoggin County Jail where his bail was set at $2,000 cash.
Also arrested at the scene Wednesday was 46-year-old Crystal Murray of Lewiston.
Murray was wanted for failure to appear in court for numerous drug-related offenses, according to Auburn Police.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="22365 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=22365">5 Comments
So, with a very small bail set for what is a potential ten years in jail for a felon in possession of semi auto hand gun, is Sanchez now back on the streets? Or would it be politically incorrect fot the kid who wrote this story to include that?
What is the suspect’s immigration status? Are we allowed to ask?
“His most recent conviction was for the illegal possession of a firearm in 2022, when he was sentenced to 15 months in prison.”
Did he serve any of that sentence?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Auburn Maine is like a war zone now under Mills.
Two active shooters
A female XX teenager kidnapped and raped while walking on Minot Ave
Homelessness up 20% under Mills
Homeless drug addicted people wandering all over Auburn with backpacks begging for money on almost every street corner
I kicked a fentanyl pill off the sidewalk less than a year ago.
i won’t walk in Auburn. It is not a safe community anymore.
Thanks for Nothing Mills!
$2000 bail on 2nd offence felony with a gun and fentanyl? He’ll get out and be gone and the Maine courts will never see him again. What is his immigration status? If I were a betting man, I would say Gabriel Sanchez is not a resident of the USA. If I ever get in trouble with a gun, I don’t want any special treatment I just want to be treated like an illegal alien or Hunter Biden.