Jury Renders Guilty Verdicts In Township 37 Marijuana Grow Case
BANGOR, Maine - John J. Arvanitis, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration for New England and United States Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II announced that Malcolm French, 52, of Enfield; Rodney Russell, 50, of South Thomaston; Kendall Chase, 57, of Bradford; and Haynes Timberland, Inc., a Maine corporation, were found guilty on Friday evening by a federal jury sitting in Bangor of federal offenses arising out of the September 22, 2009 seizure of 2,943 marijuana plants in Township 37, Washington County. French, Russell and Chase were found guilty of conspiracy to manufacture over 1000 marijuana plants. French and Russell were found guilty of manufacturing over 1,000 marijuana plants. French, Russell and Haynes Timberland, Inc. were found guilty of managing and controlling property used to manufacture marijuana. French and Russell were found guilty of harboring illegal aliens. The jury also determined that French’s interest in Haynes Timberland, Inc., Township 37, a warehouse compound in Township 31, and a hunting camp in LaGrange facilitated the drug offenses.
French and Russell face from 10 years to life in prison and a $10,000,000 fine on the conspiracy and manufacturing charges; Chase faces up to life in prison and a $10,000,000 fine on the conspiracy charge; French and Russell face up to 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine for managing and controlling property used to manufacture marijuana; and French and Russell face up to 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for harboring illegal aliens. French and Haynes Timberland, Inc. also face the forfeiture of their property that facilitated the crimes. The defendants will be sentenced after completion of a pre-sentence investigation report by the U.S. Probation Office.
The case was investigated by the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency, the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office of Homeland Security Investigations, with assistance from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
