A Rochester, New York, man arrested in Augusta a year ago has been sentenced to 10 years in prison on federal drug conspiracy charges.

Denton Worrell, 21, also known as “Lil D,” was one of 16 people charged as co-conspirators in an operation that investigators say brought heroin, fentanyl and cocaine base from New York to sell in central Maine.

A prosecution memo cites a pre-sentencing report filed at U.S. District Court in Bangor which says Worrell “was responsible for finding and staffing trap and stash houses, for receiving the supply of narcotics from Rochester and divvying it up to be dropped-off at trap houses, and receiving the drug proceeds collected from each trap or stash house and providing said money to Brent Hercules to return to (Darrell) Newton in Rochester.”

The same report indicates that Worrell said he was a “supervisor” in the conspiracy and Newton was the leader.

Charges remain pending against Newton, 38, of Rochester, New York. Hercules, 30, also of Rochester, New York, is scheduled for a sentencing hearing Tuesday. He pleaded guilty March 11 to conspiracy charges as well as to possession of heroin and cocaine base.

Worrell pleaded guilty May 8 in U.S. District Court in Bangor to conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances. The 10-year prison term imposed Monday is to be followed by three years of supervised release.

The government maintained that the conspiracy started in about 2015 and was aimed at distributing heroin, fentanyl and crack cocaine throughout central Maine, with $150,000 worth of crack cocaine and heroin picked up weekly from Massachusetts and New York, and brought to “stash houses” in Maine.

According to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice, Worrell “managed the operation and oversaw the distribution of drugs from 12-15 ‘trap houses'” in central Maine.

“Maine residents who provided trap houses and/or stash houses for the (conspiracy) were compensated with ‘rent’ in the form of quantities of drugs or cash,” wrote Worrell’s defense attorney Roger Burnelle Jr., in a motion seeking a sentence of no more than 48 months for Worrell.

Brunelle maintained that for about a quarter of the time, Worrell was in Rochester and did not participate in the conspiracy at that point, and this should be considered in fashioning a sentence.

When Worrell was arrested at a Melville Street apartment in Augusta in August, agents reported finding a clear plastic bag in the bathroom containing 41 bags of suspected heroin weighing a total of 4.8 grams, 65 bags of suspected crack cocaine weighing a total of 13.9 grams and 16 bags containing suspected cocaine powder weighing 3.1 grams.

On Sept. 9, Jason Folkner, 43, of Gardiner, a co-defendant, was sentenced to 72 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release, for his role in the conspiracy. Prosecutors say he allowed his home to be used as a “trap house,” where people could come to purchase drugs from the conspirators.

Betty Adams — 621-5631

badams@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @betadams

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