The house belonged to a convicted

drug dealer.
By Gail Geraghty
Staff Writer

NORWAY – The North Norway home of convicted drug dealer Joel Keene was seized by drug agents and sold in May for $225,000, and each police agency that worked on the case got a piece of the pie.

The Maine Drug Enforcement Agency got the largest share, $83,363, or 40 percent of the $208,409 net sales amount, according to John Cooper, chief deputy for the U.S. Marshal’s Office in Portland.

The Maine State Police, Oxford and Somerset counties sheriff’s departments and Norway Police Department all got around $21,000, or 10 percent of the net sales amount, he said.

A U.S. District Court jury ruled that the 83 Gravier Drive property, including a home with a two-bay garage and 79 acres in tree growth, was subject to criminal forfeiture because it was used to store large quantities of marijuana and cocaine, MDEA Supervisor and Special Agent Gerry Baril said.

Baril characterized Keene as a “mid-level” dealer, “almost like a wholesaler,” who allowed drugs to be stored at his home “that were then repackaged for distribution by others,” he said.

Baril said the homes of drug dealers are seized when the amount of drugs seized are consistent with the value of the home. “He dealt in drugs worth hundreds of thousands of dollars a year,” Baril said.

The law enforcement agencies who received money from the sale of the home all participated in a Sept. 29, 2000, raid of Keene’s property. The raid produced around 70 pounds of marijuana and several pounds of cocaine, both found in his garage.

Keene was charged with possession with intent to distribute both marijuana and cocaine. His first trial in May 2001 in U.S. District Court in Portland ended with a hung jury. Keene was tried again by the same court, and was found guilty in July 2002.

He appealed the case to the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston but that appeal was denied on Aug. 22 of this year, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Toof.

Keene was sentenced to five and a half years in prison and fined $12,500. He is serving that sentence at the Devens Federal Medical Center in Ayer, Mass.

Somerset County Sheriff’s Department officials became involved in the case after an informant told them Keene regularly sold large amounts of cocaine from his home “and that it had been occurring for the past 20 years,” according to a court affidavit by MDEA Agent Tony Milligan supporting the search warrant. The informant said Keene was a heavy user of cocaine, supplied cocaine to two motorcycle clubs, “and bragged that he had made over $100,000 from cocaine sales in 1999.”

The informant also said Keene traveled out of the country two or three times a year to pick up cocaine, and “conducted sales of cocaine while at work.”

Milligan’s affidavit also includes statements of informants dating back to March 1992, including one in 1993 in which the informant said Keene “was involved in a group of significant drug dealers in Oxford County.”

Norway Police Chief Tim Richards told selectmen Thursday that his department is using the money to buy radar equipment, computers, a security camera and personal body armor. Richards said the money must be used “for equipment to counter and fight drugs.”

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