Three Massachusetts men were indicted by a federal grand jury Wednesday after a drive-by shooting in Saco on Feb. 9.
Joshua Estrada, 19, Yancarlos Abrante, 20, and Jason Johnson-Rivera, 18, all of New Bedford, Massachusetts, were charged with conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine and perpetrating a drive-by shooting, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Estrada, Abrante and Johnson-Rivera are accused of having fired at least five rounds from a 9mm handgun into another vehicle in a drug trade dispute. The indictment also alleges that the three men had been trafficking cocaine in and around Saco and Biddeford since at least January.
The men allegedly sold drugs to a police informant, according to an affidavit in court documents.
Estrada was arrested in New Bedford on May 6 and made his initial appearance in federal court in Maine on Thursday, according to the DOJ. Abrante and Johnson-Rivera, are being held in Massachusetts on unrelated charges and are expected to make their initial court appearances in Maine next week.
If convicted, the three men each face up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million on the drug charge. Additionally, they each face up to 25 in prison a fine of up to $250,000 on the drive-by shooting charge.
Just before noon on Feb. 9 police received a report of shots fired between two vehicles at the intersection of Elm and Temple streets in Saco.
Immediately after shots were fired, one of the vehicles, a Honda HRV, crashed into a car, which was pushed into an Old Orchard Beach school bus at the intersection of North Street and Elm Street, police said at the time.
The bus had students in it at the time of the crash, but no injuries were reported.
The occupants of the crashed Honda fled the site. Police found a handgun in the car. The second vehicle was found off Route 25 in Standish.
The daytime shooting in February led to a shelter-in-place order and a school lockdown.
