BANGOR, Maine — A former Bangor man pleaded guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court to one count of conspiring to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute crack cocaine, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
By pleading guilty, Wendell White, 52, of Rumford admitted that between January 2010 and August 2013, he conspired with Christian Turner, 29, and Rodrigo Ramirez, 35, both of New Haven, Connecticut, and others to distribute more than 280 grams, equivalent to nearly 10 ounces, of crack cocaine throughout Greater Bangor.
The drugs were obtained in the New Haven, Connecticut, area and brought to the Bangor area by others, according to a news release issued late Thursday. White obtained the drugs from Turner and Ramirez and sold them for $100 per gram and $50 per half-gram. He also allowed Turner, Ramirez and others to use his apartment on Sanford Street in Bangor as a place where crack could be sold and used.
Other members of the conspiracy from New Haven included members of the Red Side Guerilla Brims, a violent street gang affiliated with the Almighty Blood Nation, a national street gang, the release said.
Turner was sentenced earlier this month in federal court in Bangor to 25 years in prison. Ramirez pleaded guilty in June in U.S. District Court in New Haven to a racketeering charge. His sentencing date has not been set.
White faces up to 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine.
A sentencing date for White has not been set. He will be held without bail until sentencing, according to information filed in the court’s electronic case filing system.
White, who had been free on $5,000 unsecured bail since March 2015, is the last of 11 defendants indicted by a Maine federal grand jury in connection with the gang’s drug distribution ring in Bangor, the release said.
The case was investigated by the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency, the New Haven Office of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations.