United States Drug Enforcement Administration

DEC 15 - BANGOR, Maine - Michael J. Ferguson Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration New England Division and United States Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II announced that Don Grace, 54, of Etna, Maine, was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court by Judge John A. Woodcock, Jr. to 15 years in prison and eight years of supervised release for conspiring to distribute heroin.  He pleaded guilty on May 4, 2016.

According to court records, between August 2015 and January 2016, Grace conspired to distribute more than 100 grams of heroin.  Grace and others obtained large quantities of heroin on a weekly basis from an out of state source of supply and distributed it throughout Central Maine.  On January 25, 2016, agents arrested Grace and seized 3,300 bags of heroin from the vehicle in which he was traveling and 1,500 bags of heroin from his Etna residence.

Grace had been federally prosecuted five times in 2004, 2007 and 2009 for felony drug offenses and for violating the terms of his supervised release.  Judge Woodcock noted that, in his 13 years on the bench, Grace was the only defendant who he had to sentence on five occasions. 

The case was investigated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, with assistance provided by the Maine State Police and was investigated and prosecuted as part of the Department of Justice’s Strategy to Combat the Opioid Epidemic.