PORTLAND – A member of a multimillion-dollar international drug ring that included 20 Americans and 11 Canadians has been convicted by a federal jury.

Joseph Parsley, 31, of Howard Beach, N.Y., was found guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court after a four-day trial on charges of conspiracy to import marijuana and conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute marijuana.

He is one of 16 men and women in the U.S. who have been convicted as a result of an 18-month joint investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police into the marijuana and Ecstasy smuggling operation.

The New Brunswick-to-Maine route proved to be a major conduit for trafficking marijuana methamphetamine and Ecstasy to Boston, New York and Philadelphia, according to Canadian law enforcement officials.

Some 1,500 pounds of high-grade hydroponic marijuana with a estimated street value of $3.5 million were seized during various operations that targeted the Maine border, said Paula Silsby, the U.S. attorney for Maine, in a news release issued Friday.

The drugs were brought across the border by boat, snowmobile and all-terrain vehicles, and in one instance, concealed in a false compartment of a gasoline tank located in the bed of a pickup truck.

Parsley and 10 others were indicted in October 2005 by a federal grand jury in Portland. Four of the five Canadians who were indicted are listed as fugitives in court documents. The remaining five co-defendants have pleaded guilty to drug smuggling charges and are scheduled to be sentenced next year.

Daniel Lapierre, 57, of Montreal; Benjamin Pratt, 38, of Monkton, Vt.; Laurence Lieber, 55, of Brooklyn, N.Y., Brent Santor, 29, of Yorba Linda, Calif.; and Cordel Lochin, 41, and Thomas Blondet, 26, both of New York City, have pleaded guilty to drug charges. They and Parsley are scheduled to be sentenced next year in Portland.

Parsley and his co-defendants face a minimum of five years in federal prison and a maximum of 40 years in addition to a fine of up to $2 million.

In addition to prison time, ringleader Lapierre agreed to forfeit $4 million he earned from the smuggling operation, according to court documents.

Two Caribou women linked to the operation were sentenced in October in federal court in Bangor for their part in what U.S. District Judge John Woodcock called a “major international drug conspiracy.”

Verna Haney, 44, and Linda Fortin, 43, were arrested near Van Buren in March 2003 with 141 pounds of marijuana in the back of a minivan.

Border patrol agents saw two people on snowmobiles approach from the Canadian border and throw large hockey-type duffel bags into the back of the van.

Both women pleaded guilty to charges of possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute and each was sentenced to more than two years in federal prison

In addition to the women, four Canadians arrested over the past three years in Maine now are serving time in federal prison for their part in the smuggling operation. The men were arrested in Aroostook County with large amounts of marijuana or large amounts of cash.