BANGOR, Maine — A total of 20 law enforcement personnel who were instrumental in five difficult and complicated cases ending in convictions were honored Tuesday by the United States attorney for Maine.
U.S. Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II said that the convictions would not have been possible without law enforcement agencies working together.
He was at the Margaret Chase Smith Federal Building in the morning honoring personnel involved in two major cases and said he would be in Portland later in the day to recognize the work of officers from that region, and a Scarborough resident, for their outstanding service in three other cases.
The arrest and conviction of a drug dealer from New York who also set an Orrington house on fire in 2012 required six different agencies working together to resolve, Delahanty pointed out in Bangor.
“The one take away from this is: This case worked because these people worked together from half a dozen different agencies, and if one of them had not done their job, the case would not have been successful,” Delahanty said regarding the case of Oscar Nunez.
Investigator Stewart Jacobs of the state fire marshal’s office; Tyler Leighton and Paul J. McNeil of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Old Town police Officer Lori Renzullo, who also works for the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency; Penobscot County Sheriff’s Cpl. Noel Santiago and Christine Waterhouse of the Maine State Police Crime Lab were recognized for their work on the Nunez case.
Nunez, 28, of Verona Island and Bronx, New York, last August completed a 32-month sentence for selling crack cocaine in Hancock County. In November, he was sentenced in U.S. District Court to six years and 10 months in federal prison on a gun charge and 20 years in state prison with all but eight years suspended for arson and criminal threatening in connection with an arson at a home in Orrington nearly four years ago.
Three others were honored by Delahanty for their work leading to convictions in the largest marijuana grow seizure case in the state’s history. Anthony Castellanos of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations; Rodney Giguere, Internal Revenue Service’s criminal investigation division; and Jonathan Richards, Maine Drug Enforcement Agency and Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Office, were recognized.
“It all started on Sept 22, 2009, when a helicopter being flown by Maine state game wardens discovered what they believed was a sophisticated marijuana grow deep in the woods of Washington County, in Township 37,” Delahanty said.
State and federal law enforcement officers raided the plantation and seized nearly 3,000 marijuana plants. The marijuana had a value somewhere in the range of $7 million. After being discovered, undocumented workers who lived at the remote site set fire to the site and fled.
“Over the next three years, Agents Richards, Giguere and Castellanos conducted an exhaustive investigation interviewing dozens of witnesses and issuing 10 federal search warrants,” Delahanty said. “They were able to prove Malcolm French, Rodney Russell, Kendall Chase and Moises Soto had operated the grow for several years before being discovered,” Delahanty said.
French, 54, of Enfield, Russell, 52, of South Thomaston and Chase, 59, of Bradford were found guilty on a variety of charges in connection with the pot farm in January 2014 and were sentenced in April to prison time, fines and property forfeitures. Soto, 55, who testified against French, Chase and Russell, pleaded guilty in July 2013 to a drug conspiracy charge and one count of harboring illegal aliens. He was sentenced to four years in prison, some of which was served while he was being held without bail after his arrest in March 2013.
Robert Berg of Corinna was sentenced to six months for being an accessory after the fact to manufacturing 1,000 or more marijuana plants at a large marijuana farm in Township 37. A fifth man, Scott MacPherson, who ran the day-to-day operation at the Township 37 grow site and was granted immunity, took his own life in February 2011 in the days before he was to testify before a federal grand jury, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joel Casey, who Delahanty jokingly called the “Mayor of Township 37,” also offered his appreciation for their hard work.
“Thanks for your persistence, diligence and expertise,” Casey said.
Tuesday afternoon presentations are scheduled to recognize Martin Conley and Douglas M. McDonnell of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations; John Bourque, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and Kennebec County Sheriff’s Office; Paul Buchanan and Paul Wolf of the DEA; Joshua Guay, DEA and Scarborough Police Department; Scarborough Police Department personnel Thomas Chard, Timothy Dalton, Andrew Flynn and Glenn Tucker; Herbert Hughes, Scarborough police and fire departments; and Scarborough resident Shane Redding.