PARIS — A former Sweden woman pleaded guilty Wednesday to bringing 600 doses of the synthetic opioid fentanyl into Maine from Massachusetts in 2016.

Gayle Gilmore, 20, of Augusta appeared in Oxford County Superior Court to enter pleas to importing scheduled drugs and criminal conspiracy. In exchange, the state dropped a charge of trafficking fentanyl, a highly addictive, deadly narcotic that is up to 50 times more powerful than heroin.

If in the next two years Gilmore meets conditions set by the state, she will be allowed to withdraw her guilty pleas and plead to a lesser charge of conspiracy to traffic in scheduled drugs.

Conditions include not using or possessing illegal drugs, submitting to random searches or tests, having no contact with co-defendant, Derek Verrill, completing 100 hours of public service and donating $500 to local food pantries within 18 months.

Assistant Attorney General David Fisher said if the case had gone to trial, officers with the Fryeburg Police Department, Oxford County Sheriff’s Office and Maine Drug Enforcement Agency would have testified that Gilmore and Verrill were arrested after their vehicle was stopped on West Fryeburg Road on April 15, 2016, and police found 60 grams of fentanyl.

Originally, police said the drug was heroin, but testing later revealed it was fentanyl.

Verrill was sentenced Sept. 13, 2017, to eight years in prison with all but three years suspended for trafficking in fentanyl.

mdaigle@sunmediagroup.net

Gayle Gilmore (Sun Journal file photo)

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