MARTINS FERRY — Three people were arrested and jailed Tuesday morning after they were found with drug paraphernalia.

Martins Ferry Police Chief John McFarland said suspicious activity was observed off of Ohio 7 northbound.

“I rolled up on it up at Old Route 7 and the vehicle back in the bushes and started to investigate it, found a couple people back hiding in the woods,” he said. “There were three of them we arrested. … There was evidence of them using stuff to smoke either heroin, meth or fentanyl.”

He said officers had a potentially dangerous situation on their hands when they took the suspects into custody.

“The suspected fentanyl/heroin that we had (Tuesday) morning, the guy had it loaded into a syringe that was in his pocket. Thank God it had a cap on it and it didn’t poke one of us, because if it did we would have ended up in the emergency room,” he said. “We will send that away to have it analyzed as well. … We initially arrested these people for trespassing. We wanted to check them to make sure they don’t have weapons on them, and we have to stick our hands down them pockets and there was a syringe. … It was a full syringe.”

John Walter McNicholas, 48, and Gabriel Balough Harkins, 22, both of 606 Market St., Yorkville, and Hope Marie Calhoun, 22, of 11 Raynes Road, Mingo Junction, were arrested.

All three face charges of trespassing. McNicholas was booked for possession of drugs and drug abuse instruments, Harkins for possession of drug paraphernalia and obstruction of police, and Calhoun for obstruction and driving under suspension. McFarland said there were also warrants for her arrest.

According to Belmont County court records, there are warrants for her out of Northern Division County Court for driving under suspension. According to Northern Division Court, the three have not yet been scheduled to come before Judge Chris Berhalter.