Five-foot-tall plants and two pounds of processed buds were seized by officials.
By Terry Karkos
Staff Writer

SUMNER – A mother and son were arrested Wednesday night by police from multiple agencies on charges of trafficking, furnishing and growing marijuana worth an estimated $55,000.

Linda Lamontagne, 55, and Jacob M. Shoemaker, 20, both of 187 Bonney Road, were both charged with one count each of trafficking in marijuana and furnishing marijuana, both Class C felony crimes, and one count each of misdemeanor cultivating of marijuana.

Shoemaker was additionally charged with violation of conditions of release.

Both were transported to Oxford County jail in Paris where bail was set for each at $2,000 unsecured. Arraignment times had yet to be determined.

Oxford County Deputy Chancey Libby said Wednesday night that an anonymous person phoned in a tip to him on March 2 at the Sheriff’s office about the family marijuana growing operation.

“We got a search warrant then went and knocked on her door and told her why we were there,” Libby said, and the mother and son offered no resistance.

Seized in the search were 66 marijuana plants that were nearly 5 feet tall, worth an estimated $52,000 on the street, and about two pounds of processed marijuana buds, worth between $2,000 and $3,000, said Maine Drug Enforcement Agent Tony Milligan.

“There was marijuana found throughout the three-story house,” he said.

The big blue house with two towers is known locally as “The Castle,” Libby added.

“Marijuana was everywhere on every floor. They also had several growing rooms with expensive lamps. There was also evidence of other unused growing rooms in the house,” Milligan added.

He said the 400-watt lamps, a high pressure sodium grow light and a metal halide grow light, provided the plants with simulated late fall sunlight and simulated spring and summer sunlight.

“They were trying to simulate and succeeded in simulating Mother Nature by making the plants think that they were growing outside,” Milligan said.

In addition to Libby and Milligan, other participating officers included Oxford County Sgt. Gary Hill and Cpl. Dane Tripp; Rumford Detective Lt. Wayne Gallant, Sgt. Stacy Carter, and officer James Bernard; drug enforcement agent supervisor Gerry Baril, and two U.S. Border Patrol agents with a narcotics detection dog.

tkarkos@sunjournal.com

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