BANGOR – A federal judge told a Caribou man to go out and get a job when he completes his 15-month sentence in federal prison for bringing oxycodone into the country through an Aroostook County golf course.

U.S. District Judge John Woodcock also ordered Andrew P. Adams, 23, to pay a $1,000 fine during his three years of supervised release after he completes his sentence.

“I think you should go out and get a job and not a job on the Internet but one that imposes a sense of self-discipline that has been lacking in your life,” Woodcock told Adams in imposing the sentence.

Adams was arrested in July in the parking lot of the Aroostook Valley Country Club in Fort Fairfield with 145 oxycodone pills in a plastic bag that was inside a golf ball sleeve, according to court documents.

By pleading guilty in November to conspiracy to import oxycodone pills, he admitted that he had called a Canadian man to play golf and bring Adams some OxyContin pills. Adams told police that he exchanged $600 for the pills between the fourth and sixth holes on the golf course.

Adams faced up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million. Under the federal sentencing guidelines, the recommended sentence was 12 to 18 months in prison.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joel Casey recommended the sentence that Woodcock imposed. Federal Public Defender Virginia Villa, who told the court Adams had been addicted to oxycodone for five years, asked that her client receive a lesser sentence and not be ordered to pay a fine.

Since his graduation from Caribou High School in 2003, Woodcock observed, Adams has not held a steady job. He worked as a band and concert promoter in Portland before returning to Caribou about two years ago, where he ran an Internet business out of the apartment he shared with his girlfriend and infant son.

“I won’t let my family down again,” said Adams, who has been held at the Piscataquis County Jail since he pleaded guilty four months ago. “I’ve learned that it’s not the mistakes you make in life that’s important, it’s how you overcome them.”

The mother of Adams’ young son sobbed behind him as he apologized for his crime. The defendant’s son, who is less than 1 year old, slept in his grandmother’s arms as his father spoke.

Woodcock called Adams’ actions a “violation of the sanctity of the United States’ border and the common history and trust they share.”

“The geography of the course reflects the close historic ties between the citizens of these two great nations,” the judge said, ” and yet the defendant violated that trust.”

The country club has parking lots on both the American and Canadian sides of the border, with all golf holes located in Canada. The Canadian, who was not charged in U.S. District Court, apparently entered and left the golf course through the parking lot on the American side.

Although he was questioned by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, he was turned over to immigration officials for deportation, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Typically, the Bangor Daily News does not name suspects who have not been charged.

Adams is expected to be moved to a federal prison outside the state in about a month. He will receive credit for the time he has been in jail awaiting sentencing.

jharrison@bangordailynews.net

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