PORTLAND – The leader of a group that operated a crack cocaine ring out of a Sabattus mobile home in 2002 was sentenced Thursday to 15 years in federal prison.

Jorge Matos, 39, a native of the Dominican Republic, was sentenced in U.S. District Court nearly five years after the drug ring was broken up. Federal officials said the delay was a result of the extradition process – it wasn’t until February 2006 that Matos was arrested in Santa Domingo and returned to Maine.

Investigators said that during the summer and fall of 2002, Matos and the other suspects were responsible for a large amount of crack that was moving through the Twin Cities and surrounding towns.

According to court records, during the late spring or early summer of that year, a group of Dominican men, who were recruited and led by Matos, began transporting cocaine base to the Lewiston area from Springfield, Mass., for sale and distribution.

Some of the men eventually began residing at a mobile home in Sabattus, investigators said. At any given time, two out of a group of six of them would typically be present at the mobile home and would remain there selling the cocaine base until the supply ran low, according to court records.

When that happened, two other men from the same group would arrive at the trailer from Massachusetts with a fresh supply of crack. The suspects earned several thousand dollars in proceeds from the sale of cocaine base during a single trip to Maine, according to prosecutors. The drug proceeds were returned to Massachusetts and given to Matos.

On an early evening in November 2002, local, state and federal agents stormed the Crowley Road trailer after learning there were drugs and weapons inside.

Five people were arrested during the raid. Two others were captured later, in Portugal and Canada, and charged with being part of the drug trafficking network. Matos was named in a warrant, but was not returned to the U.S. until last year.

The other suspects have been convicted and sentenced for their roles in the crack trafficking operation. In 2003, Juan Antonio Navarro, 23, was sent to federal prison for 25 years for his role in the drug ring. Prosecutors said Navarro was the manager of the drug ring.