A third man has pleaded guilty to helping run an indoor pot farm in Frankfort for the owner of a Bangor head shop and hookah lounge.
Jeremy Duguay, 34, of Bangor pleaded guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court to conspiring to manufacture, distribute and possess marijuana with intent to distribute, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
Nicholas Reynolds, 32, of Bangor and James Mansfield, 33, of Etna each pleaded guilty to the same charge earlier this year, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court.
The trio is accused of running the operation with Terrence Sawtelle, 48, of Bangor for Christopher Ruhlin, 48, of Holden, owner of Herbal Tea & Tobacco in downtown Bangor. Sawtelle and Ruhlin have denied involvement in the operation.
Ruhlin and Sawtelle are charged with one of count each of conspiracy to manufacture and distribute marijuana and possess with intent to distribute marijuana. Ruhlin also is charged with two counts of maintaining a drug-involved place and seven counts of structuring bank transactions to avoid reporting deposits of $10,000 or more to the U.S. Treasury Department.
By pleading guilty, Duguay admitted that between October 2010 and August 2016 he participated in a conspiracy to grow, harvest and sell marijuana in a facility at 376 North Searsport Road in Frankfort.
During a May 12, 2016, raid on the Frankfort property, agents seized about 400 marijuana plants, 295 marijuana root bulbs, processed marijuana, receipts from a garden center totaling about $25,000 and other items, according to court documents. Three months later, 23 containers of processed marijuana were seized from the 13 Owls Club smoking lounge, adjacent to Herbal Tea & Tobacco, in Bangor.
Duguay is represented by federal defender James Nixon of Bangor. It is the practice of that office and the U.S. attorney’s office not to comment on pending cases.
Sentencing dates for Duguay, Reynolds and Mansfield have not been set.
Each faces up to 20 years in federal prison. All three men are free on bail.
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