Helena police have arrested three men in connection with a drug deal gone bad — for the dealer, that is.

According to court documents filed Tuesday, Curtis James Alexander, Charles Michael Herrald, and Seneca Lee Wiley robbed and assaulted a Helena man recently after he allegedly sold them crushed vitamins instead of methamphetamine.

Law enforcement officers began investigating the case on April 14 after receiving a report that four men were beating up another near a residence on North Warren.

When officers arrived, the found the victim, who said he had been hit in the head with what he believed to be a baseball bat. The blow caused him to fall to the ground, at which point his attackers punched and kicked him.

The man added that they took $200 out of a wallet he kept in his pocket.

Despite the man’s injuries, officers thought he was not being particularly cooperative with their investigation, prompting them to press him a little harder about the incident, court documents state.

The man’s reasoning for being somewhat tight-lipped about what happened to him soon became obvious.

According to police reports, the victim in the case eventually admitted that he was contacted by a man who wanted to purchase a quarter gram of methamphetamine. Apparently the victim agreed to the deal, but since he was “annoyed” by the man’s persistence in making the deal, he swapped crushed vitamins for the methamphetamine.

It wasn’t long after the purchasers of the “meth” discovered that they had been duped, and called the dealer demanding a refund.

The man agreed, and met them on North Warren with the $30 he was given in exchange for the bogus drugs in hand.

At that time, three men emerged from a truck, and instead of accepting the $30, insisted that the man had been given $50 for the drugs.

They allegedly assaulted the man, took $200 from his wallet, and fled the scene.

Court documents state that police tracked cellular phone calls allegedly made by the suspects to the dealer, and vehicle registrations, to determine that the suspects should be picked up.

A warrant was issued for Alexander, Herrald and Wiley’s arrest this week, and the trio were picked up in Great Falls.