Man gets 364 days for pot cultivation

HOULTON – The second of four men charged in connection with a major marijuana growing operation in Aroostook County was found guilty of cultivation of marijuana on Wednesday and sentenced to 364 days in jail.

Michael Gallagher, 38, of Litchfield was taken to the Aroostook County Jail to serve his sentence after his trial in the Aroostook County Superior Court.

Within an hour of deliberations, the jury found Gallagher guilty of cultivating fewer than 100 marijuana plants, according to a state drug agent.

Several agents of the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency and deputy sheriffs testified at Gallagher’s one-day trial, prosecuted by Aroostook County Assistant District Attorney Suzanne Lilley.

Used in the trial was a surveillance video that showed Gallagher and Thomas Taylor harvesting marijuana plants in Haynesville in September 2002, according to Darrell Crandall, MDEA supervisor of the Houlton Task Force Office.

Gallagher’s sentence, handed down by Justice E. Allen Hunter, was the maximum allowed by law. Gallagher will serve six months of the sentence, and six months will be suspended. He will also be on probation for one year after his release.

Gallagher was ordered to have no contact with his co-defendants, nor with anyone who has been convicted of a drug-related offense. He also will be subject to random searches by law enforcement.

Taylor, 36, of Sabattus pleaded guilty to cultivation and trafficking marijuana last week in Aroostook County Superior Court. On Wednesday, Taylor, with his attorney at his side, invoked his Fifth Amendment rights against incriminating himself and refused to answer questions at Gallagher’s trial, according to Crandall.

According to an MDEA press release, Richard Cleary of Houlton, Gallagher’s attorney, described his client as “just a hired hand, gathering the crop.”

“This was quite an operation,” Crandall said Thursday afternoon. “We worked on this since 1999, at one level or another.

“This marijuana was to be sold throughout the state,” he said. “It was grown here in Aroostook County and taken elsewhere for sale.”

Gallagher and three other men were indicted in the fall of 2002 for their involvement in a large marijuana growing operation in southern Aroostook County, and several locations in Kennebec and Androscoggin counties.

Taylor is serving six months in jail for his part in the operation. He also paid more than $54,000 in fines and fees, and surrendered a 2002 ATV used in the operation.

Louis Ouellette, 44, of Wales has pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing. Thomas Vandenbossche, 44, of Litchfield is awaiting trial.

The four were arrested after a search of a farmhouse on Ferry Bridge Road in Haynesville revealed cultivation equipment, clothing worn during harvesting, fertilizer, lime and other related items. Police also found paperwork connecting the four to the residence.

Police had found 61 pounds of marijuana, evidence of cultivation, and several firearms at a home owned by Taylor in Wales. About 60 pounds of marijuana, evidence of cultivation, records and a handgun also were found in Vandenbossche’s home.

The case resulted from the discovery over a three-year period of fields of planted and tended marijuana in several locations in Aroostook County. MDEA agents and deputy sheriffs pulled more than 200 plants in the fall of 2002.

Executing search warrants, agents seized 47 pounds of processed marijuana, an ATV and a motor vehicle used in the operation.

Projected street value of the processed marijuana was estimated at $140,000, and the value of the 200 pulled plants was estimated at $300,000.

The surveillance and carrying out of search warrants in the fall of 2002 involved MDEA agents from four of the state’s six field offices, and deputy sheriffs from four counties, Crandall explained.