BANGOR – The New York man charged with running a $300,000 cocaine distribution ring in Greater Bangor appeared Wednesday in Penobscot County Superior Court after being returned to the state over the weekend.

Edwin Devaughn Keys, 25, was arrested in New York last month. He is one of 11 people facing charges in connection with the drug ring, according to the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency.

Between October 2005 and June 2006, Keys lived in Bangor and allegedly earned $5,000 to $6,000 a week from selling drugs.

Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Hjelm set Keys’ bail at $50,000 cash or $500,000 surety.

He remained Wednesday in the Penobscot County Jail unable to make bail.

Keys is charged with three counts of Class A aggravated trafficking in scheduled drugs. He did not enter a plea at Wednesday’s short hearing.

He is expected to be indicted Monday by the Penobscot County grand jury.

If convicted, he faces up to 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $50,000.

Keys also is charged with violating his probation on a drug conviction out of Kennebec County. He was sentenced in 2001 to 10 years in prison with all but three suspended for dealing cocaine out of a Waterville motel.

After his release from prison, he returned to New York, Assistant Attorney General Patrick Larson told the court.

Although Keys qualified for a court appointed attorney, Larson told the judge that between January 2005 and January 2007, the defendant received more than $60,000 in wire transfers from the couriers who allegedly delivered drugs for him.

Six people who MDEA agents have said were involved in Keys’ operation were arrested last year. Another four have been arrested since the first of the year. Keys was arrested a month ago in New York.

Although the case was not the largest bust in the area’s history, MDEA Cmdr. Darrell Crandall told the Bangor Daily News last month that it was “significant.”