PORTLAND – A 45-year-old man who moved to Auburn after spending a dozen years in federal prison for selling drugs was sentenced this week to another five years behind bars.

Calvin Tidswell admitted Monday that he violated the terms of his federal probation by selling a gram and a half of cocaine.

Accepting a recommendation from Assistant U.S. Attorney Jon Toof, a federal judge sent Tidswell back to prison for another five years, which was the maximum amount allowable under federal law.

However, that sentence is only punishment for violating the terms of his release. He still faces the actual charge of aggravated trafficking in cocaine.

That charge, which carries a maximum of 40 years in prison, will be dealt with in state court because the amount of drugs wasn’t large enough to warrant federal charges, Toof said.

Tidswell had been out of prison for a year and a half before he was charged with selling drugs to an undercover informant.

He was arrested April 6, the same day that the Sun Journal featured him in a front-page story about the difficulties that felons have getting a job after they get out of prison.

In the story, Tidswell described himself as an honest ex-con searching hard to find a legitimate job.

He was quoted as saying that after spending a dozen years in prison for a 1990 cocaine-dealing conviction, he had been trying to get work, only to be refused time and again because of his criminal record.

“I’d rather starve than hustle drugs again,” Tidswell told the Sun Journal.

At the same time that the Sun Journal was conducting interviews with Tidswell for the story, drug agents were planning his arrest.

Shortly after the newspaper hit the streets, local and federal drug agents conducted a search of Tidswell’s Temple Street apartment, then drove to Oxford where they found Tidswell at his friend’s house.

Investigators say they have overwhelming evidence that Tidswell had been peddling cocaine for several weeks from the apartment that he shared with his mother.