5 Maine Law Enforcement Charged Federally, Connected to Illegal Weed Scheme.
Posted by Edmund R. Folsom
October 28, 2021
In a big breaking story in Maine news today, 4 cops and an Assistant D.A. have been charged in federal court for their alleged part in an illegal marijuana growing and selling scheme and its attempted coverup.
Yesterday, Randall Cousineau pled guilty in federal court, in Bangor, to a number of charges related to his role as the financier of an illegal marijuana growing and selling operation. In tandem with this, a 14-count complaint was filed in the same court against 12 codefendants allegedly involved in various aspects of the scheme.
The complaint and the 96-page accompanying affidavit tell us Lucas Sirois established the primary location of the operation at a place called the “Shoe Shop,” in Farmington. The Shoe Shop projected the outward appearance of a legal, medical marijuana grow operation. But it was allegedly the hub of multiple grow operations run in violation of Maine law. The various locations were reportedly used to illegally grow marijuana, some of which was sold on the black market. Lucas Sirois illegally employed his father at the Shoe Shop, despite his father having previously been convicted of a felony drug offense.
The government asserts that Lucas Sirois partnered with Rangeley Town Selectman David Burgess who, among other things, at one point promoted the operation’s agenda by advancing a town marijuana ordinance drafted by Sirois.
In late 2019, two Franklin County Sheriff’s Deputies, Bradley Scoville and Derrick Doucette, were brought onboard. According to the affidavit accompanying the complaint, from September of 2019 to November of 2019, while Scoville and Doucette were still employed as sheriff’s deputies, Sirois gave them a large office in the Shoe Shop. During this time, they allegedly frequented the Shoe Shop while wearing their service uniforms. In November of 2019, the two resigned their deputy positions and partnered with Sirois. Sirois bought each of them a new Ford Explorer as a company car.
At some point in 2020, Sirois, Scoville, Doucette, et. al., got the impression they were under surveillance. They enlisted the help of some law enforcement contacts to run license plate numbers on the vehicles they suspected were tailing them, to help determine who might be involved in their investigation. At Scoville’s behest, Wilton Police Officer Kevin Lemay and Oxford County Sheriff’s Deputy James McLamb ran plate numbers and provided feedback to Scoville on the results. Later on, when the lid was blown and Lemay and McLamb realized that Scoville, Doucette and company were under federal investigation, Lemay and McLamb allegedly tried to distance themselves from Scoville by deleting text messages, thereby destroying evidence. Lemay and McLamb are charged for the assistance they allegedly rendered and for destroying evidence.
Scoville was also the next-door-neighbor of Franklin County Assistant District Attorney Kayla Alves. In addition to reaching out to Lemay and McLamb for help running plates on the people tailing him, Scoville also asked ADA Alves if she was aware of any ongoing investigation of himself and the operation he was involved in. The FBI affidavit claims that Alves later tipped-off Scoville that he and his cohorts were under federal investigation. ADA Alves allegedly deleted her texts with Scoville once she discovered she’d been found out. She has been charged in connection with tipping-off Scoville to the federal investigation and with destroying evidence.
And then there is a tax preparer named Kenneth Allen, charged along with the others. Allen allegedly counseled Sirois how to falsify tax returns to reduce his personal tax burden and that of his various business entities. Allen also assisted Sirois in preparing and filing the allegedly falsified returns.
This being a federal case, Sirois is also charged with making false statements to various banks, allegedly claiming that no part of the proceeds of the businesses that were the subject of the banking transactions came from the marijuana trade.
The complaint charges Sirois’s wife and a couple other named co-conspirators with their complicity in certain aspects of the operation. And, the associated FBI affidavit refers to a number of people who are unnamed, referred-to only as co-conspirators. That’s an indication that there’s more to come. By my reading, there are at least 7 unnamed co-conspirators on the feds’ radar, so there must be at least that many more shoes to drop.
Altogether, 5 of the charged co-defendants are law enforcement: Two ex-Franklin County deputies, one Oxford County deputy, one Wilton police officer, and one Franklin County ADA. That’s a lot of wreckage.
The complaint and affidavit are embedded in the news account here.
“Perhaps you’d understand it better
Standin’ in my shoes, it’s the ultimate enticement
It’s the smuggler’s blues”
Glenn Frey, Smuggler’s Blues
