— By
Staff Writer
PORTLAND — All 12 defendants in a major federal drug trafficking case have agreed to plead guilty to their roles in bringing more than a ton of marijuana into Maine.
The agreement between prosecutors and Sean McKoy of Waterbury, Conn. — the last defendant to change his plea — was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court.
McKoy agreed to plead guilty in exchange for a recommendation by the prosecutors that he get 10 years in prison, the minimum mandatory sentence for a drug conspiracy conviction.
The other defendants have either pleaded guilty or await hearings to do so, according to court records.
Those defendants are Adolphus Edwards of Waterbury, Conn.; Hal McKoy of Waterbury, Conn.; Russell Fitzgerald of Manchester, Conn.; Cory MacDonald of Arundel; Patrick Mullen of South Portland; Craig Kimball of St. Albans; Robert Dall of Westbrook; Thomas Dyer of Brunswick; Dennis Taylor of Topsham; Ronald Waterman of Island Falls; and Arthur Moreau of Ripley.
The FBI’s supervisory agent in Maine has said the investigation shut down several pipelines that delivered marijuana from Connecticut into Maine. The case, in terms of the number of defendants and the amount of marijuana involved, is among the larger drug busts to come through federal court in Portland in recent years.
The arrests of the 12 men followed an FBI investigation into another man, Samuel Morrill of Limington.
Agents used wiretaps, computer forensics and surveillance to investigate Morrill from January to April of 2009. They learned that Morrill was in contact with several people in Connecticut who supplied him with marijuana.
Morrill was indicted and pleaded guilty to drug trafficking in September. He admitted to bringing millions of dollars worth of marijuana into Maine from 2006 to the spring of 2009.
Morrill sometimes imported 100 pounds a week. The value of the marijuana he imported and distributed was between $2 million and $11 million, according to court papers. Morrill, who faces a minimum sentence of 20 years because of a prior drug conviction, is scheduled to be sentenced next month.
Jamie Guerrette, special assistant U.S. attorney, declined to comment on the cases.
Staff Writer Trevor Maxwell can be contacted at 791-6451 or at:
tmaxwell@pressherald.comThe value of the marijuana imported and distributed by Samuel Morrill of Limington was between $2 million and $11 million, according to court papers.
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