BANGOR – A federal judge on Thursday compared the illegal actions of former executives at a Winslow biological lab who admitted smuggling an illegal chicken virus into the U.S. to drug dealers selling crack on Maine’s city streets.

U.S. District Judge John Woodcock reluctantly sentenced four of the participants in the conspiracy to create a vaccine for the avian virus at Maine Biological Laboratories Inc. to one year in prison as federal prosecutors had recommended.

Woodcock also sentenced the man who admitted hatching a portion of the scheme to nine months in prison and a former college professor involved in the plan to two years of probation.

All six defendants pleaded guilty last year to a variety of charges related to the scheme.

“I consider these sentences to be extraordinarily lenient – too lenient for the crimes committed,” Woodcock said Thursday at the end of a two-day sentencing hearing. “It is not uncommon in this courtroom for me to impose 10-, 12- or 15-year sentences to young men and women who sell crack on the streets of Waterville, Augusta and Bangor. …

“Your actions, each of them individually and collectively, were every bit as dangerous as were those defendants’,” the judge said.

The firm also has pleaded guilty to similar charges and faces fines that could exceed $300,000, according to court documents. Woodcock said Thursday the sentencing in the lab’s case would be scheduled in August.

The case dates back to 1998, when an MBL customer in Saudi Arabia discovered one of its chicken flocks had an avian influenza, according to court documents. To produce a vaccine, the lab required a sample of the virus, which then was smuggled into the U.S.

It is illegal to import avian influenza into the U.S. even for research purposes.

After producing a vaccine, company officials falsified production records and shipping documents to send it back to the Saudi producers. The Winslow firm was paid nearly $900,000 for 8,000 bottles of the vaccine.

A whistle-blower employee told federal authorities about the scheme.

Assistant U.S. Attorney George “Toby” Dilworth recommended that the sentences of the major participants be less than the 12 to 18 months outlined in the federal sentencing guidelines because of their cooperation in the investigation. Woodcock granted the reductions but also imposed fines on each defendant, based, in part, on his or her ability to pay, and imposed a period of probation after those who were sentenced to prison are released.

Woodcock imposed the following sentences:

. John Donahoe, 60, of Flowery Branch, Ga., former company president, 11 months and 30 days, a $30,000 fine.

. Marjorie Evans, 42, of Belgrade Lakes, former vice president for quality assurance and regulatory affairs, one year and one day, a $10,000 fine.

. Thomas Swieczkowski, 48, of Vassalboro, former vice president of production, one year and one day, a $5,000 fine.

. Dennis Guerrette, 41, of Brunswick, former chief financial officer, one year and one day, a $10,000 fine.

. Mark Dekich, 52, of Clinton, N.C., former veterinarian for the Saudi Arabian flocks, nine months, $5,000 fine.

. John Rosenberger, a former University of Delaware professor and researcher, two years of probation, a $10,000 fine.

Dekich asked Rosenberger to identify a virus that was infecting chickens in the Saudi Arabian flock which Dekich oversaw. After the virus was identified, the veterinarian contacted MBL to make a vaccine.

The sentence of one year and one day will allow the former executives to earn good time while in prison. Donahoe asked that his sentence be less than one year so that he will not be barred from working to eradicate avian influenza in Japan.

Two other former lab workers, Walter Gogan, 63, of Winslow and Peggy Lancaster, 47, of Mount Vernon, each were sentenced last year to two years of probation for their part in the cover-up of the scheme.

Before imposing the sentences, Woodcock wondered aloud how such highly trained professionals ended up pleading guilty to criminal charges in federal court.

“What went wrong?” he asked. “This all began with such promise. MBL was to be the future of the Maine and American economies driven by cutting-edge science and a global range of potential customers.

“It was able to retain the best and the brightest,” he continued, “like Dr. Donahoe, a person of truly extraordinary accomplishment, and a native Mainer like Evans, who graduated from a Maine high school, attended college in Maine and chose to stay and work here. …

“To make this conspiracy work required a broad set of skills,” Woodcock said. “If any one defendant had done the right thing, no one would be here in this courtroom today.”