Sudanese Refugee Whose Deportation Was Deferred After Prior Felony Convictions Pleads Guilty to Selling Cocaine and Crack to Federal Informant

A Sudanese refugee with multiple prior convictions in Maine, including criminal threatening with a firearm, assault, driving while intoxicated and unlawful possession of a controlled substance, as well as a previous charge for his alleged involvement in a 2012 gang rape in Portland, has pleaded guilty to federal drug charges.

Francis Wilson Mezan, 34, pleaded guilty on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Portland to three counts of drug distribution.

According to federal prosecutors, Mezan sold cocaine and cocaine base (crack cocaine) to a confidential source on three separate occasions in the summer of 2024. Those transactions were caught on video by investigators and were monitored via surveillance.

Mezan now faces up to 20 years in federal prison, a fine of up to $1 million and three years to life of supervised release.

Court records from one of Mezan’s previous immigration proceedings reveal that he was born in Khartoum, Sudan, in 1990 and was admitted to the United States and settled in Maine as a refugee in 2007.

In August 2011, Mezan was convicted in the Superior Court of Portland for criminal threatening with a firearm, and criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon.

Due to his not becoming a lawful permanent resident combined with his felony convictions, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in September 2011 charged Mezan with removability from the U.S.

Although he was subject to a final order of removal in August 2012, Mezan’s deportation to Sudan was deferred under the Convention Against Torture (CAT), and he was released from custody in March of 2012.

The Sudanese refugee was one of two men charged for an alleged gang rape of a woman in Portland in 2012.

The Portland Press Herald in June 2013 reported that prosecutors dropped a charge of kidnapping against Mezan — as well as a second count of kidnapping in the alleged gang rape of another woman in 2009 — after the alleged victim of the 2012 gang rape moved out of Maine and was unable to be located for testimony by authorities.

Mezan was accused of being among a group of six men who on July 26, 2012 — just months after he was released from the failed deportation order — allegedly drove the victim to the Sagamore Village public housing development in Portland and raped her at gunpoint.

Mezan was again convicted of several crimes in September and November of 2018, including assault, driving while intoxicated, unlawful possession of a controlled substance, probation violations and failure to provide his correct name, address and date of birth.

ICE took Mezan into custody again in November 2018, after which his removal proceedings were tied up in federal immigration court for several years, court records show.