LEWISTON – A man charged with bringing thousands of dollars worth of crack cocaine into Lewiston earlier this year has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Curtis Thurman, 38, of the Bronx, N.Y., was ordered to serve a decade in federal prison after he was convicted of conspiracy to possess and distribute crack.

Thurman was arrested with three other men in January as the group was leaving a Lisbon Street motel. Police and drug agents had been keeping the suspects under surveillance as part of an investigation into drug trafficking between New York and Lewiston.

As Thurman was driving away from the motel, police pulled over the car he was riding in. Investigators said they seized 7.5 ounces of crack worth $42,000 when they arrested Thurman. Because of the amount involved, he was arrested on the federal trafficking charge.

Police said they found another 3.5 grams on 42-year-old Jeffrey Dillingham of Lewiston, who was in a second car pulled over on Lisbon Street. Dillingham was charged with trafficking in crack cocaine.

Investigators said Thurman and Dillingham were seen leaving a room at the Morning Star Inn at 1905 Lisbon St. early on a Sunday night.

For most of the day, Maine Drug Enforcement agents, Lewiston police and officials from the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area had been watching the motel.

Police said Thurman left the motel in a car driven by 28-year-old Willard Allen of Lewiston. Allen was also charged with a federal count of conspiracy to possess and distribute crack.

Dillingham was seen leaving the Morning Star Inn in a car driven by 35-year-old David Moody of Auburn, police said.

When that car was stopped, Moody was arrested on charges of driving with a suspended license after having been declared a habitual offender.

Investigators said the arrests were the result of a tip an informant gave Lewiston police. However, Thurman had been the target of an investigation involving several agencies since the spring of 2003.

In May of that year, Thurman was arrested in Portland after getting off a bus arriving from New York City. Police said Thurman was caught with another man found to be carrying 130 grams of cocaine. Investigators said the drugs were bound for Lewiston.

Before the pair was arrested in Portland, police and drug agents in Lewiston had been watching for them at the bus station in Lewiston.

Drug investigators say Thurman’s arrest was only a part of a probe into a network of dealers who move crack between New York and Lewiston.

“They come up here, they sell their quantity of cocaine and they wire the money back to New York. Then they catch a bus and head back and start all over,” said Maine Drug Enforcement Agency supervisor Gerry Baril, as the investigation was ongoing. “It’s a never-ending pipeline.”

Charges against others arrested with Thurman are still pending in court.