By Mark LaFlamme,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – A man convicted of bringing thousands of dollars worth of crack cocaine into Lewiston in recent years was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court in Portland.

Willard “Bucky” Allen, 29, of Lewiston, was ordered to serve 30 years in a federal penitentiary after he was found guilty of conspiracy to distribute crack and possession of the drug with intent to distribute it.

Allen was one of several men charged in the case after a group of people was stopped by police and drug agents during an investigation in January 2004. He was indicted by a federal grand jury a month later and convicted late last year.

On Thursday, Allen was sentenced to the 30-year prison term in spite of his requests to the court that they depart from sentencing guidelines.

A federal court judge described Allen as a “substantial drug distributor” before handing down the sentence.

Last year, Curtis Thurman, 39, of the Bronx, N.Y., was ordered to serve a decade in federal prison after he was convicted in the same case.

Thurman and Allen were arrested with two other men as the group was leaving a Lisbon Street motel. Police and drug agents said they had been keeping the suspects under surveillance as part of an investigation into drug trafficking between New York City and Lewiston.

As Thurman was leaving 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 him. Police said Allen was driving that car.

Police said they found another 3.5 grams on 43-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. Dillingham was leaving that motel in a car driven by 36-year-old David Moody of Auburn, police said. 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 from an informant. However, Thurman had been the target of an investigation involving several agencies since the spring of 2003.

Drug investigators say the arrests and eventual convictions were only a small part of a probe into a network of dealers who haul cocaine to the Lewiston area.

“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.”

Copy the Story Link