BRENTWOOD — Salem's former Zoning Board of Appeals chairman has been indicted on felony drug charges by a grand jury in superior court, six months after police allegedly monitored him selling Oxycodone pills from his home.

Ron Giordano, 53, is facing two counts of sale of a controlled drug and single counts of conspiracy to commit sale of a controlled drug and violation of the controlled drugs act.

The indictments marked the first step in bringing a case against the former state representative and town official to Rockingham County Superior Court.

Giordano could face up to 3½ to 7 years in state prison if he is convicted by a jury.

Prosecutors say Giordano sold more than 100 pills to an informant working with Salem police within a three-week period between Dec. 11 and 29, indictments say.

Toward the end of those transactions, Giordano offered to sell more pills to the informant, according to the indictments.

Police say Giordano claimed to have been getting the drugs from a prescription related to a past injury, but investigators have expressed skepticism about that claim because of the volume of pills he had obtained in a short period of time.

Salem police said they began using the confidential informant once they learned Giordano was selling drugs.

The informant, who is not named in court documents, “personally knows Giordano” and “has purchased narcotics from Giordano in the past,” Salem Police Detective Michael Bernard said in a sworn affidavit. Police kept the informant under surveillance and during a meeting with Giordano at a parking lot on North Broadway in Salem, the affidavit says.

The first drug sale happened in the parking lot followed by drug buys at Giordano's home on Lois Lane, Bernard said in the affidavit. Four detectives watched the buyer go inside Giordano's home and leave minutes later, police said. The informant then turned over the drugs he bought to police, according to the affidavit. Police gave the buyer marked currency to buy the drugs from Giordano.

That money was later recovered along with $6,000 in cash during a search at Giordano's home, police said.

Giordano, who resigned from the zoning board in the wake of his arrest, is free on $10,000 cash bail. He is scheduled for arraignment June 28 in Rockingham County Superior Court.

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James A. Kimble may be reached at JKimble@newstote.com.