BANGOR, Maine — A jury of eight women and four men began deliberating about 10:40 a.m. Friday in the trial of a father and daughter accused of running a drug distribution ring for a dozen years in the Dexter area.
The trial of Roger Belanger, 58, of Corinna and his daughter, Kelli Mujo, 40, of Wellington and Central Falls, Rhode Island, began Monday before U.S. District Judge Jon Levy in federal court.
Each is charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute and to possess with the intent to distribute at least 5 kilograms, or 11 pounds, of cocaine and an unspecified amount of oxycodone and with using or maintaining a drug-involved place between Jan. 1, 2002, and Nov. 22, 2014.
“This was a family business, an illegal family business,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Joel Casey told jurors in his closing argument Friday. “It operated for a dozen years because they were careful. They trusted their intuition. They relied upon their understanding about how to go about breaking the law. And they used their residences to operate the family business.”
Mujo’s attorney, Stephen Smith of Augusta, called the government’s case “garbage on stilts” and criticized the prosecution for not introducing into evidence any drugs seized from either Belanger or Mujo.
“Where are the drugs?” he asked in his closing argument. “Not one gram of cocaine, not one pill, nothing has been introduced as evidence. A dozen cooperating witnesses, three police officers, hundreds of man hours of investigation, but where are the drugs?”
The prosecution had called a dozen cooperating witnesses, some of whom testified that Belanger and Mujo first obtained cocaine and, later, oxycodone from a source in Rhode Island, Casey told the jury. All testified they had purchased cocaine and/or oxycodone pills from Belanger or Mujo or both between 2002 and 2014.
The prosecutor also said the evidence that the amount of cocaine sold over those 12 years was in excess of 5 kilograms “was overwhelming.”
Casey estimated that the “family business” smuggled 1.2 grams of cocaine per week into the Dexter area over the course of the alleged conspiracy.
Smith said the “stilts” in the case are the cooperating witnesses who took the stand. “All those people, there’s your stilts,” he told jurors. “The government is convinced they’ve got the right people, but when you consider the stilts that the government is resting its case on, you must acquit.”
If the jury finds the father-daughter duo guilty of cocaine trafficking, it also will have to decide on the amount distributed. If Belanger and Mujo are found to have distributed at least 5 kilograms, they would face mandatory minimum sentences of 10 years. The jury also must decide whether Mujo should be ordered to forfeit more than $17,000 in cash seized by a New Hampshire police officer in 2006 when she was allegedly driving to Rhode Island to buy drugs.
Belanger and Mujo were indicted in April 2015 along with eight people who have since pleaded guilty. Six of them testified.
If convicted, Belanger and Mujo face between 10 years and life in prison on the drug conspiracy charge because of the amount of cocaine allegedly distributed and a fine of up to $10,000.
On the charge of using or maintaining a drug-involved place, they face up to 20 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $500,000.
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