BANGOR, Maine — An Old Town man was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District to four years and nine months in federal prison for his role in a bath salts distribution ring that operated in Greater Bangor in 2011.
Matthew Tardiff, 27, of Old Town, was the last of 14 people arrested in the case but the first to enter a guilty plea in January. By pleading guilty, Tardiff admitted he was part of a conspiracy to distribute bath salts between April 1 and Dec. 31, 2011, according to the prosecution version of events.
In addition to prison time, Tardiff was sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay a $500 fine, according to information posted on the court’s electronic case filing system.
Tardiff and 13 others were indicted by a federal grand jury in July 2013 in connection with an alleged conspiracy to distribute MDPV, also called bath salts, in 2011. The drug is known to cause paranoia, convulsions and psychotic behavior in users.
The number of defendants indicted appears to make this the largest bath salts conspiracy case prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Maine.
Tardiff had been held without bail since his arrest on a federal charge in September.
He first was arrested in August 2011 at the trailer where he lived in Old Town. Police went to the Regency Trailer Park after receiving a tip that drugs were being dealt out of Tardiff’s residence, according to a previously published report.
He was convicted in February 2012 in state court of unlawful trafficking in synthetic hallucinogenic drugs and ordered to pay a $400 fine, according to court listings printed in the Bangor Daily News.
Last summer, he was indicted in federal court on one count each of conspiracy to possess a controlled substance with the intent to distribute and using or maintaining a drug involved place. In exchange for Tardiff’s guilty plea to the drug conspiracy charge, the second charge was dismissed at sentencing.
Others charged in the case include Adam Hathorn, 36, of Bangor; Tina “Fumble” Keaton, 32, of Bangor; Michael “Bub” Tardiff, 53, of Old Town; Steven Orosco, 23, of Orrington; Jessica Bryden, 21, of Greenbush; Daniel Hines, 37, of Orrington; Ryan Ellis, 32, also known as “Dude,” “Calvin” or “Piles,” of Greenbush; Alan Ketchen, 40, also known as “AJ” or “Hobbes,” of Bangor; Jacob Gagnon, 25, of Van Buren, formerly of Bangor, also known as “Jake the Snake”; April Kane, 28, of Gorham; Elizabeth Mikotowicz, 27, of Bangor; Jamie Lewis, 37, formerly of Bangor, now of New Hampshire; and Gina Nelson, 30, of Bradley.
All but Ellis, Gagnon, Kane and Lewis have pleaded guilty and are jailed awaiting sentencing.
He faced up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million, according to court documents. Under the prevailing federal sentencing guidelines, the recommended sentence was between four years and nine months and five years and 11 months.
Tardiff’s attorney, John Geary of Lewiston, urged U.S. District Judge John Woodcock to impose a sentence of 3½ years, below the guideline range. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joel Casey, who prosecuted the case, recommended a sentence of five years.
Although similar behavior appears to have led to Tardiff being charged in state court in 2011 and federal court in 2013, the Constitutional guarantee against double jeopardy does not apply, because the charges are not the same and were lodged under different jurisdictions — one state, the other federal.