An Ellsworth man on Monday was sentenced to nearly six years in prison for a conspiracy to traffic drugs from California to Downeast Maine, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maine announced.
Lucas Michaud, 33, of Ellsworth, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Bangor to 70 months in prison to be followed by five years of supervised release for conspiring to distribute and possess with intent to distribute controlled substances, and conspiring to commit money laundering.
Michaud previously pleaded guilty to the charges in January of this year.
According to federal prosecutors, Michaud was part of a conspiracy from May 2022 through May 2023 in which he and others trafficked methamphetamine into Maine via a source in California.
Court records show that the source in California would mail shipments of methamphetamine to Maine for distribution in the Downeast region.
The proceeds from the drug sales were sent to the California source using various money services, including Walmart2Walmart, Cash App, and Venmo.
Michaud and other co-conspirators were alleged to have used their identifications and accounts to receive the money and to conceal and disguise the source’s involvement in the transactions and money laundering operation.
