ALPENA — A Flint man who brought narcotics to Alpena and used area women to deliver them was found guilty Tuesday and sentenced to five to 20 years in state prison.

Three admitted heroin addicts and a state prison inmate gave testimony before the 26th Circuit Court on behalf of the prosecution in this week’s jury trial of Milton Baytops, 33, who was accused of delivering illegal narcotics in Alpena.

Baytops found local women via social media, then used them to carry the drugs to purchasers to help him avoid detection, witnesses said. The jury, rejecting the defense’s contention that the witnesses were lying, found Baytops guilty on two counts of distribution of an illegal narcotic and one charge of conspiring to deliver narcotics.

According to witness testimony, while he was still downstate, Baytops made contact with Alpena woman Aaron Bissonette, who he knew to be an addict who sold drugs locally herself. Bissonette informed Baytops that Alpena was a good place to make sales and invited him to stay at her Washington Avenue apartment, offering to help him find buyers.

Shortly after Baytops arrived and began selling locally, three overdoses in quick succession caught the attention of the Huron Undercover Narcotics Team, who zeroed in on Bissonette’s apartment as the source for all three overdoses.

In early March, HUNT officers arrested Bissonette and another woman, who was making a delivery. Bissonette, initially denying involvement with Baytops, was detained, but the other woman admitted to delivering the drug and agreed to assist HUNT with a sting operation by purchasing heroin from Baytops, allegedly for her own use, using HUNT money.

After the woman successfully returned to HUNT detectives with packages of heroin, an early-morning raid on the apartment by HUNT and the Michigan State Police Emergency Services team resulted in the arrest of Baytops and his girlfriend, Chastity Wolff, of Lansing.

A subsequent search of the apartment resulted in the discovery of the HUNT money in Baytop’s wallet, along with his ID. No drugs were located in the apartment.

Bissonette pleaded guilty in June to charges of delivery and maintaining a drug house after being offered a reduced sentence in exchange for her testimony against Baytops. Baytops rejected an offer of three years in prison in exchange for a guilty plea, instead deciding to take his chances before a jury.

Witness Wendy Macleod, one of the women recruited by Baytops and Bissonette as a carrier, recounted walking to a local gas station to meet buyers carrying a stash of heroin given to her by Baytops. She explained the language adopted by drug users and buyers on social media to mask their illegal actions, phrases such as a simple-seeming request for dog food standing in for a proposed drug deal.

The first time she met Baytops, Macleod testified, she overdosed on the heroin he gave her.

But “the minute I got out of it, I wanted more,” the witness said.

She had heard that the town was “hot,” because of increased activity by HUNT, and advised Baytops to stay out of sight while the women made his deliveries.

Many addicts prefer the more dangerous drug fentanyl over heroin, Macleod said, because of its potency and because they have built up a tolerance to heroin. Very little fentanyl can cause a longer high, but also has the potential to be deadly because users don’t know how much to take, the witness explained.

Heroin sold on the street can be pure, or can contain mixed-in ingredients such as baking soda to increase the seller’s profit. Fentanol can be mixed in with heroin without the user’s knowledge to make it offer a “better” high, sometimes causing an overdose.

The string of February overdoses caused by his heroin — which police suspect but have not confirmed was mixed with fentanyl — was treated casually by Baytops, Macleod testified. Drug users, she reported, see overdoses as a sign that the product being used is strong and will give them a “good” high, making it more sought-after.

Witnesses reported that Baytops referred to overdoses, including that of one of the women distributing drugs for him, as a method of “killing off lightweights.”

The jury of five women and seven men deliberated for about an hour before announcing their unanimous verdict of guilty on all counts. Because Baytops had been offered a plea deal previously, he was able to be sentenced immediately. Judge Michael Mack sentenced the defendant to a minimum of five years in prison, with no credit for time served because Baytops had been on probation at the time of his arrest.

Baytops indicated intent to appeal the jury’s decision.

In a final statement before sentencing was imposed, Alpena County Prosecutor Ed Black pointed out Baytops’ three prior felony convictions for dealing narcotics, suggesting that a substantial amount of prison time was appropriate.

“We think a strong message needs to be sent to those coming up to our community to deliver drugs: they need to stay away,” Black said.

Julie Riddle can be reached at 989-358-5693, jriddle@thealpenanews.com or on Twitter @jriddleX.