Milbridge man gets nine years for cocaine sales

BANGOR – A Milbridge man was sentenced on Monday in Penobscot County Superior Court to nine years in prison for selling cocaine in two counties during the same week in November.

Gary W. Reynolds, 48, received back-to-back sentences – four years for drug trafficking in Hancock County and five years for drug trafficking in Penobscot County. He faced a maximum of 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to the two felony charges on Monday.

The longer sentence for the second offense was imposed because Reynolds was out on bail when he sold drugs for the second time in less than a week to a police informant, said Assistant Attorney General William Savage, who prosecuted the case.

Reynolds was one of three people arrested on Nov. 15 at a Hancock home where agents with the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency interrupted an alleged cocaine sale. Officials seized nearly $1,200 in cash and cocaine valued at more than $1,400.

Five days later, police arrested Reynolds again after investigators located his stash of more than $9,000 worth of cocaine hidden in the woods using ground and air surveillance. The pursuit on Nov. 20 began in Brewer, where Reynolds sold 2 grams of cocaine to a confidential informant, according to court documents.

Reynolds then drove to Milbridge in Washington County as MDEA agents maintained a rolling surveillance, both in cars and by helicopter, according to MDEA Supervisory Special Agent Garry Higgins.

Authorities watched as Reynolds drove into a wooded area, stayed for a while and then drove away to a trailer on U.S. Route 1A.

Agents and a state trooper with a drug dog searched the wooded area, discovering a plastic bag left in a hole near a thorn bush, according to court documents. The bag contained what authorities determined to be about 94 grams, or more than 3 ounces of cocaine, which has a street value of about $100 per gram, Higgins said in November.

Agents followed Reynolds until he pulled into a convenience store in Holden. When he came out of the store, authorities arrested him without incident, Higgins reported. During a search of Reynolds, some of the money used to make the cocaine purchase in Brewer was recovered.