'I was shocked when I saw his name was in the paper."

Harrison Thorp 10:46 a.m.


'I was shocked when I saw his name was in the paper."

Christopher S. Blier, inset; some of the cash and drugs found in his car after it was stopped, according to police. (Sanford Police photo)

MILTON - The man federal authorities accuse of being a major fentanyl trafficker in the Northern Seacoast and Sanford area was recalled as "a good kid" and someone you'd never "imagine in a million years" would be caught up in drugs, a former Nute High staff member said last week.

Christopher S. Blier, 31, whose address has been given as 701 Upper Guinea Road, Lebanon, but grew up in Milton and attended Nute High, was arrested by Sanford Police on July 22 on charges of aggravated trafficking and several other charges after a traffic stop on Route 202.

Last week The Lebanon Voice provided exclusive detail regarding the fed's recent takeover of the case, with the former charges winnowed down to a single charge of possession with intent to distribute a mixture containing fentanyl, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Jamie Guerrette of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Portland, the lead prosecutor in the case.

Last Tuesday Blier went before a federal judge in Portland and was released on an unsecured property bond of $10,000, according to court records obtained by The Lebanon Voice.

But the former Nute High staffer, who asked not to be identified for this story, said she knew Blier as a "very well-mannered young man."

"It's very said for this little town," she added.

She said after high school, it looked like he was off and running on a great life.

"He had a good job at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard," she said. "And he met a girl and has a child."

She said she was saddened to learn he had somehow gotten into drugs.

"He's a victim of the drug," she said. "I was shocked when I saw his name was in the paper."

Shortly after his July arrest the significance of the bust came clear when the head of the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency's Biddeford office, Pete Madore, called it "a substantial seizure for this area."

Madore estimated the street value of 128 gross grams of heroin seized from Blier's car at around $20,000. Officers also found more than $10,000 cash in Blier's possession.

Blier's Facebook Page notes he went to Nute High School.

As of Wednesday future court dates in the case had yet to be scheduled.