BANGOR MAN GETS FIVE YEARS IN PRISON FOR DEALING HEROIN

August 1, 2002

AUGUST 28, 2002

CONTACT: MATT ERICKSON, Assistant Attorney General
207-945-0373

Attorney General Steven Rowe reported today that Joseph LeFrancois, age 40, of Bangor was sentenced to five years in prison Tuesday for Aggravated Trafficking in Heroin (Class A). Police searched a hotel room in Brewer where LeFrancois was living on March 21, 2002, and found three bags of heroin that LeFrancois was trying to flush down the toilet, drug ledgers, drug paraphernalia, and $1,476 in drug proceeds. The Superior Court judge also gave LeFrancois a concurrent one year sentence on an unrelated Possession of Heroin charge that stemmed from an unrelated car stop by the Brewer Police Department on January 27, 2002. LeFrancois had a previous felony drug conviction in Massachusetts in 1991. The seized cash was forfeited to the State.

"We hope this case sends a message to heroin dealers that they will get caught and serve long sentences, especially the second time around," said Assistant Attorney General Matt Erickson, the prosecutor in the case. The cases were investigated by the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency and the Brewer Police Department.