Augusta man gets 8 years in prison on federal drug, gun charges

BANGOR – An Augusta man was sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court to more than eight years in prison on federal gun and drug charges.

Frank Arbour, 28, was sentenced to 100 months in prison and three years of probation.

He was arrested in September 2002 with Roy Dubreil, 39, at Dubreil’s home in Chelsea. Law enforcement officials recovered cocaine, 14 firearms and ammunition from the residence, according to court documents.

At about the same time, agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives recovered two guns in Massachusetts that were traced to a federally licensed firearms dealer in Winslow, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. In the course of their investigation, agents found that at least one of the guns had been used by Arbour as payment for the drugs he was distributing. The pair was indicted in December 2002 on charges of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and possession of a firearm by a felon. Arbour also was indicted on the use of a firearm related to drug trafficking, and Dubreil was indicted on a charge of possessing a sawed-off shotgun. The men pleaded guilty to the charges in October 2003 and were jailed awaiting sentencing.

The case took several unusual procedural twists and turns while the U.S. Supreme Court decided the constitutionality of the federal sentencing guidelines.

If Arbour had been sentenced while the legality of the guidelines was in limbo, he would have faced 31/2 to four years less of incarceration, according to his attorney, Leonard Sharon of Auburn. A date for Dubreil’s sentencing has not been set.