BANGOR (AP) – A federal judge reluctantly imposed sentences he described as “extraordinarily lenient” Thursday as he sent six people involved in a scheme to smuggle a chicken virus into the country to no more than a year in prison.

U.S. District Judge John Woodcock sentenced four of the conspiracy participants to a year in prison, the Bangor Daily News reported. He sentenced another man who helped hatch the conspiracy to nine months in prison, and imposed probation on a former college professor.

“I consider these sentences to be extraordinarily lenient – too lenient – for the crimes committed,” Woodcock said Thursday at the end of a two-day sentencing hearing.

The case dates back to 1998, when a Maine Biological Laboratories Inc. customer in Saudi Arabia discovered one of its chicken flocks had avian influenza, prosecutors said.

To produce a vaccine, Winslow-based Maine Biological required a sample of the virus, which was smuggled into the United States, prosecutors said. After producing a vaccine, officials falsified production records and shipping documents to send it back to the Saudi customer.

The Winslow firm was paid nearly $900,000 for 8,000 bottles of the vaccine. A whistleblower employee told federal authorities about the scheme.

Assistant U.S. Attorney George “Toby” Dilworth recommended that the sentences of the major participants be less than the 12 to 18 months outlined in the federal sentencing guidelines due to their cooperation in the investigation.

Woodcock granted the reductions.

John Donahoe, 60, of Flowery Branch, Ga., former president, was sentenced to 11 months and 30 days. Three others were sentenced to one year and a day: Marjorie Evans, 42, of Belgrade Lakes; Thomas Swieczkowski, 48, of Vassalboro; and Dennis Guerrette, 41, of Brunswick.

Mark Dekich, 52, of Clinton, N.C., former veterinarian for the Saudi Arabian flocks, was sentenced to nine months, and John Rosenberger, a former University of Delaware professor and researcher, was ordered to serve two years of probation.

Two other former lab workers, Walter Gogan, 63, of Winslow and Peggy Lancaster, 47, of Mount Vernon, were sentenced last year to two years of probation for their part in the cover-up.