A former officer with the Calais Police Department has been arrested after allegedly providing drugs to a student at Narraguagus High School. Jeffrey Bishop, 53, of Cherryfield left the Calais department less than a week before he was arrested on the drug-trafficking charges. According to a police affidavit and a report of Bishop's initial court appearance, the now former officer also would allegedly furnish drugs to a Baileyville woman while on duty in his police cruiser in exchange for sexual favors.
     The Maine Drug Enforcement Agency (MDEA) arrested Bishop on February 5, charging him with four counts of aggravated furnishing of schedule drugs -- hydrocodone and fentanyl -- and one count of unlawful trafficking in schedule W drugs. The charges are aggravated as a result of trafficking within 1,000 feet of a school and furnishing drugs to a minor.
     Advised on the day of his arrest that Bishop had been charged, the Calais Police Department told the MDEA it would cooperate with the investigation, according to Calais Police Chief David Randall. Chief Randall comments, "We are very surprised and concerned about the allegations against Mr. Bishop, as we are well aware that, if they are proven, this is not just a black eye to our department but to all of law enforcement. We believe that all law enforcement officers must be held to a higher standard to keep our justice system above reproach."
     Bishop, who has worked in law enforcement in Washington and Hancock counties for 25 years, was working as a part-time officer for the Calais Police Department for a few months before being hired full-time in August 2019. Nearly a year and a half later, on January 12, 2021, he submitted his resignation, and his last day of employment was January 30.
     Four days later, on February 3, the Washington County Sheriff's Office recovered illicit drugs in response to a complaint officers were investigating at the Narraguagus High School, where a 17-year-old student was provided drugs. MDEA agents of the Downeast Task Force serving Washington County joined the investigation to identify the source of the seized drugs. The recovered drugs were identified as 22 pills containing hydrocodone and three small bags containing a total of approximately 800 milligrams of a powder identified as containing fentanyl.
     Bishop was arrested without incident at 4:15 p.m. on February 5 in Harrington by MDEA agents, with the assistance of the Washington County Sheriff's Office and Maine State Police. Agents subsequently served a search warrant that evening at Bishop's Cherryfield residence, where they seized additional evidence of drug trafficking, including 110 hydrocodone pills not prescribed to Bishop.
     According to the police affidavit, a Washington County Sheriff's Office deputy had been alerted on February 1 by a basketball coach at Narraguagus that a student had acquired pills from a man in a black Dodge truck in the school's parking lot. The student's mother had told her to go to the parking lot to retrieve medication from their "uncle." Another coach kept the pill bottle, which contained 22 acetaminophen and hydrocodone pills and three baggies of fentanyl, and turned it over to the deputy.
     The student's mother, Sylvia Moores, 38, of Baileyville, was then arrested by police, and she told them she would get hydrocodone pills from Bishop, according to the affidavit. She alleged that she would meet with Bishop while he was on duty with the Calais Police Department and that he would pick her up in a patrol vehicle and give her hydrocodone pills "in exchange for a non-monetary form of payment," the affidavit states. She estimated that she had received hydrocodone from Bishop about seven times, receiving 25 to 40 pills at a time. She stated that Bishop told her "he could get 600 to 700 pills if needed."
     In addition to working for the Calais Police Department, Bishop previously was a deputy with the Washington County Sheriff's Office, where he worked for 12 years beginning in 1995, was an officer with different police departments in Washington and Hancock counties and was chief of the Jonesport Police Department. He ran for county sheriff in 2006, losing the three-way race for the Republican nomination to Rodney Merritt, who ended up being defeated in the general election by independent Donnie Smith. During the race, over 80 campaign signs belonging to Merritt and Bishop were stolen and found in a gravel pit in Lubec. Bishop later admitted that, after the primary election, he took one of Merritt's campaign signs and threw it off a bridge into the Narraguagus River.
     While campaigning in the 2006 primary race, Bishop told The Quoddy Tides, "The overwhelming influx of drugs and the steady abuse of alcohol cannot be tolerated anymore." He added, "It is my intent to implement available government funds to increase manpower and hours necessary to finance a relentless campaign against drug and alcohol abuse."
     Following his arrest on the drug-trafficking charges, Bishop was taken to the Aroostook County Jail, with bail set at $50,000 cash, according to a release from the MDEA.
     Anyone with information about this investigation or the illegal sale of drugs in this state is urged to contact the closest MDEA office, text MDEA to 847411 or call the MDEA tip-line at 800 452 6457.