AFOSI helps arrest Rhode Island Air National Guard recruiter on drug charges

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On June 1, 2009, Air Force Office of Special Investigations, detachment 102, based out of Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., and the Rhode Island State Police High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force arrested Tech. Sgt. Richard Flamand of the Rhode Island Air National Guard on various drug charges and seized approximately $40,000 in prescription medication and $7,616 in cash.

Special Agents from Det. 102 and the Rhode Island State Police HIDTA executed court-authorized search warrants at Flamand's residence, vehicle and his office at the Rhode Island Air National Guard Recruiting station.

Seized from the residence, vehicle and office were several thousand types of prescription medications to include Oxycontin, Suboxone, Methadone, Hydrocodone, and other forms of prescription narcotics. In addition, approximately 40 grams of cocaine was seized from Flamand's office.

Lt. Col. Dennis Riel, state public affairs officer for the Rhode Island National Guard, said, "If he is found guilty and they sentence him for these charges, we will decide if the penalty is consistent with what he would get under the uniform code of military justice; the criminal rules we operate by, we can either elect to proceed with additional charges or not proceed and let the civilian criminal courts take control," he said. "No matter what happens in this case we are stressing that these allegations are so far out of the realm of U.S. Air Force core values. We are confident that it is a very isolated incident.

"The military is extremely proud of its record on drug use and abuse programs," he said. "There is no other societal organization that drug tests its members more frequently than the military. We screen for that on a very frequent basis and they are all random drug tests, so clearly, if this is proven to be true, we would never have expected it."