Sorrento couple indicted

BANGOR – A Sorrento couple who allegedly operated a large marijuana operation out of their home was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury on drug charges.

Craig D. Folsom, 49, and Roxanna K. Sanborn, 55, aka Roxanna Carter, were indicted on one charge each of manufacturing marijuana. The indictment also states that the couple must forfeit any profits from the drug operation and Sanborn’s property at 6 West Side Road, Sorrento.

The two are scheduled to be arraigned on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Bangor. Pending state charges of aggravated trafficking and aggravated cultivation of marijuana are expected to be dropped now that the couple has been indicted in federal court.

Folsom was freed on $5,000 cash bail on April 12. Sanborn was freed on $1,000 cash bail on April 14.

If convicted, Folsom and Sanborn each face a minimum of five years and a maximum of 40 years in prison and a fine of up to $2 million.

Acting on a tip from the Ellsworth police, members of Hancock County’s three-person task force arrested the pair on March 10 after executing a search warrant at the house.

Law enforcement officials found marijuana growing in six of the eight rooms in the house and throughout the cellar.

Drug agents seized about 380 marijuana plants, 191/2 pounds of processed marijuana, 101/2 ounces of hashish, 28 grams of cocaine and more than $16,000 in cash, according to court documents. In a shed behind the fence, agents also found 72 marijuana plants.

“It was a very sophisticated operation,” Ellsworth police Lt. Harold Page said when the arrest was announced in March. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

The arrest of the Sorrento couple was the first operation executed by the task force. It was created in January after Hancock County commissioners voted to include $200,000 for the program in the county’s 2004 budget.