LEWISTON — A Lewiston man was sentenced Wednesday to seven years in prison for drug and firearm crimes committed in 2014.

U.S. District Court Judge George Z. Singal sentenced Matthew Mennealy, 34, to 84 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release, according to a news release by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Mennealy pleaded guilty Jan. 26 to three counts of possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance and one count of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime. 

According to court records, Maine Drug Enforcement Agency agents were investigating drug trafficking in the Lewiston-Auburn area on Dec. 14, 2014, when they witnessed what appeared to be a drug transaction in a vehicle in a Sabattus Street parking lot.

Mennealy, who was a passenger, was detained, along with Kayla Fraser, 25, of Auburn and Gregory St. Pierre, 35, of Lewiston. White searching the car, agents located cocaine base, oxycodone pills, heroin and a loaded .22-caliber handgun with a live round in the chamber.

The statement said MDEA agents obtained a search warrant for Mennealy’s and Fraser’s home at 733 Hatch Road in Auburn, where they discovered “a bin hidden in the basement ceiling that contained 46 grams of cocaine base, 79 grams of cocaine, 59 grams of heroin and 106 oxycodone 30 mg. pills.”

The agents also discovered a loaded pistol hidden under a pillow in the master bedroom and a loaded handgun in the kitchen next to a surveillance system,” according to the release.

The case was a collaboration between the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the MDEA.

mdaigle@sunmediagroup.net

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