Codee Houston, 33, of California, pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges on Thursday at the U.S. District Court in Bangor, admitting to transporting drugs from his home state into Maine.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the FBI worked in cooperation with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and multiple police departments in Penobscot and Hancock counties on the investigation that led to Houston’s arrest and indictment.
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From May 2022 to May 2023, Houston, along with other unnamed conspirators, worked to traffic large amounts of methamphetamine from California to Maine. Houston was responsible for trafficking the drugs into the state, while other co-conspirators distributed the drugs across Downeast Maine.
Co-conspirators would then transfer the proceeds from the illicit sale to Houston via money transfer services such as Venmo, Walmart2Walmart, and Cash App.
Houston used the identities of co-conspirators to receive the money, obscuring his involvement in drug dealing and the laundering of the proceeds.
Houston also pleaded guilty to similar charges based on his activities in Hawaii from April to September 2023, where he distributed both fentanyl and methamphetamine, shipping drugs to the state on four separate occasions.
He pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute and possess with intent to distribute controlled substances and conspiring to commit money laundering, with the most serious charges carrying a mandatory minimum sentence of ten years in prison or up to life imprisonment, followed by five years of supervised release, with $10 million in fines.
Houston’s sentencing will come after a presentencing investigation by the U.S. Probation Office.
