BANGOR, Maine — A York County man a federal prosecutor said may have spent the past year “jet-setting around the Caribbean and Central America” spending money he earned selling large amounts of marijuana was released Thursday on $10,000 unsecured bail.
James A. Sweeney, 27, pleaded not guilty June 22 in U.S. District Court to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 100 kilograms or more of marijuana.
Conditions of his release require that Sweeney live with a relative in Standish, abide by a curfew to be set by U.S. Probation and Pre-trial Services and call that office daily, not travel outside of Maine and have no contact with others charged in connection with a scheme to bring marijuana from Arizona to Maine in recreational vehicles.
Sweeney told U.S. Magistrate Judge Margaret Kravchuk at his bail hearing that he hoped to work on a lobster boat in Casco Bay.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joel Casey on Thursday withdrew his motion that Sweeney be held without bail pending the outcome of his case but said he had “lingering concerns regarding the defendant’s risk of flight.”
“Sweeney has been on the lam, so to speak, for about a year in the Caribbean and Central America,” Casey told the judge. “He came back, knowing there was a warrant out for his arrest. It’s to his credit that he returned to the U.S.”
Casey said that last year investigators suspected Sweeney may have had $290,000 hidden in a safe deposit box somewhere, which he may have been living off of while in the Caribbean and Costa Rica.
Defense attorney Marvin Glazier of Bangor told the judge that his client had no money hidden away and returned to the U.S. knowing he would be arrested.
Sweeney, who was arrested June 4 in Texas, came to the attention of law enforcement when a man, identified only by the initials C.S., was stopped on June 28, 2011, for a traffic violation on Interstate 44 in southwest Missouri, according to the affidavit filed last August in federal court.
Sweeney was indicted June 13, 2012, by a federal grand jury in Bangor on the charge to which he pleaded not guilty last week.
The Missouri traffic stop last year led to the arrest of Gerald Rich Jr., 47, of Frankfort, Maine, and Mark Wolosko, 46, of Kennebunkport after 375 pounds of marijuana was found in a 31-foot 2004 Coachman Freedom recreational vehicle owned by Rich. Sweeney is charged with being part of the conspiracy to transport hundreds of pounds of marijuana from Arizona to Maine.
Though Rich and Wolosko were charged with possession with the intent to distribute marijuana, the charges were dismissed a month after their arrests at the request of the U.S. attorney’s office.
Since those events, two other cooperating defendants have told investigators that Sweeney and Rich pooled their funds to purchase marijuana in Arizona through a connection Sweeney had in that state, according to the affidavit filed last August in Sweeney’s case. Until his arrest earlier this month, Sweeney’s file was sealed.
Rich and Wolosko could face charges again for their roles in the marijuana distribution scheme, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
If convicted, Sweeney faces a minimum of five years in federal prison and a maximum of 40 years and a fine of up to $2 million.
How do you go about your life if you know that you may end up being put in prison for as much as forty years?
All of a sudden my future and my life is looking a lot easier-or at least compared to this guy.
I am not so sure my life is better as he is going to get 3 meals, board and health care. I have to pay for all myself especially am now required to pay the insurance thieves more with mandated health insurance … are we still a democracy ? Our country was founded on freedoms and the Boston Tea Party said no taxation without representation well I feel taxed and my voice unheard. Anyone else starting to feel this way? Guess we will see in November.
Your voice is heard every time you cast your ballot.
Take the illegal act out of Cannabis and you solve 2 problems right away. 1 you can smoke, eat, vaporize Cannabis without fear and two wont be wasting tax payers money on cases like this.
You forgot one thing…..Tax the bejeebers out of it like they do everything else and pay for everyone’s health insurance. Add that to all the money they use to eradicate it and put that towards the deficit.
YES YES YES!!! Legalize it, sell it in liquor stores, and tax the crap out of it. Pocket the tons of money wasted on the prosecution of this harmless plant!
Up to 40 Years in prison… I just can’t wrap my mind around this after having just read an article on the man who killed his brother.. How did we end up with a legal system that will let someone skip through jail with 9 years on a murder charge and finds it perfectly acceptable to throw away half a man’s life for transportation of drugs… I know which one i would rather have as my neighbor upon release…. do you?
It is a quite a discrepancy. Was the killing a State sentence while this is a Federal one? The Feds are usually harsher.
IT’S JUST POT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Said-“I’m gonna work on a lobster boat!” Unsaid-(and smuggle my weed in by boat)
Lol I don’t think the lobster boat is fast enough. Just watch some of the old Miami Vice shows, TV always tells it true, right?
One more example of the welfare program for courts, cops and corrections. 40 years of this war on drugs and it keeps growing, this is the fastest growing business in the state, and its welfare.
Innocent citizens in Mexico are dying and countless money is being wasted because of our stupid drug policies and this guy is going to jail for something everyone seems to want. This is ridiculous, just make it legal. We need to stop legislating morality.
9 years for killing your brother in cold blood but 5 to 40 for pot…thats about right.
Good thing there were no kids being raped, or people being murdered while this dangerous criminal was transporting this deadly plant! I can’t imagine a better use of public funds than depriving this man, a real criminal, of half his life. I mean, good job, really good job guys. You should be proud of yourselves. We all know how dangerous and deadly marijuana can be. I don’t want to live on this planet anymore. Murder gets you 9 years, weed gets you 40.
===!