BANGOR, Maine — A local woman was sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court to 4½ years in prison for her role in a drug distribution ring between April and October 2014.
Tiffany Sutherland, 30, of Bangor pleaded guilty in January to a drug conspiracy charge. By pleading guilty, Sutherland admitted that she distributed crack cocaine in Greater Bangor with Terrance Douglas, 36, of
Bennettsville, South Carolina.
In addition to prison time, U.S. District Judge John Woodcock sentenced Sutherland to five years of supervised release.
In imposing the sentence, Woodcock told Sutherland that her hometown of Bangor “has changed for the worse because of people like you,” according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
She has been held without bail since pleading guilty more than six months ago. That time will be applied to her sentence.
Before entering her guilty plea, Sutherland was released on bail to an in-patient drug rehabilitation facility.
Douglas was sentenced in November 2015 to 10 years in prison on drug and gun charges. He is incarcerated at a federal correctional institution in Edgefield, South Carolina, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons’ inmate locator. His earliest release date is July 17, 2023.
Douglas and Sutherland were stopped Oct. 29, 2014, in a car driven by Timothy L. Thorpe, 35, of Dedham on the southbound lane of Interstate 95, near Hogan Road, according to a previously published report.
A search of Douglas’ motel room the next day led to the federal charges.
Thorpe was not charged in federal court but was indicted in January 2015 on a felony drug charge by the Penobscot County grand jury, according to a previously published report.
He pleaded guilty to a lesser charge in March 2015. Thorpe was sentenced to 90 days in jail and ordered to a pay a $400 fine, according to the Penobscot County district attorney’s office.
Sutherland faced between five and 40 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $5 million. Douglas faced between 10 years and life in federal prison and a fine of up to $8 million on the charges.