A 38-year-old Augusta man pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court in Bangor to his role in a 16-person conspiracy that brought drugs from Rochester, New York, and sold them in central Maine.
Donald Walter “DW” Morang Jr. “was one of the central Maine residents who assisted various Rochester dealers in distributing, storing and transporting the narcotics throughout central Maine,” according to the prosecution’s version of events, filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Joel Casey in U.S. District Court.
Casey wrote that Morang served as a middleman for drug deals and provided transportation to co-conspirators in the central Maine area and to and from Rochester.
Morang is represented by attorney Verne Paradie Jr.
The conspiracy was active between June 14, 2015, and March 9, 2017, according to the government, and involved the distribution of cocaine base, heroin and fentanyl.
Morang had been arrested at a Mount Vernon Avenue apartment in March 2016 and charged in state court with aggravated drug trafficking after Augusta police raided the apartment and reported seizing more than 7 grams of crack cocaine and more than 5 grams of heroin.
He later was convicted of unlawful trafficking in cocaine base and sentenced to four years in prison. He is serving that sentence at the Maine Correctional Center in Windham, and his release date is listed as July 9, 2019, on the state Department of Corrections website.
On Monday, Jamie Martinez Betances, 31, also known as “Booger,” “Booga,” “Buga” and “Ice,” who had an address in Augusta at one point, pleaded guilty to being in the conspiracy.
Several people, including Darrell Newton, of Rochester, New York, the man named as the ringleader, have pleaded guilty. Others already have been sentenced, including Derek Blake, 32, of Sidney, who was sentenced Monday to 42 months in federal prison.
Two other defendants indicted on the federal conspiracy charge — Frankie Dejesus, 29, and his sister, Diana M. Davis, also known as “Little C” and “C.C.,” 31, both of Rochester, New York, who were involved in an exchange of gunfire in the Augusta Walmart parking lot on June 26, 2016 — are scheduled for change-of-plea hearings Wednesday in federal court in Bangor.
Dejesus, who had no prior criminal record, received a two-year deferred disposition after he pleaded guilty in March 2017 to a charge of reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon. The special conditions of the deferred disposition required that he depart Maine by 4 p.m. the following day and return only to meet with his attorney or for court proceedings. Dejesus was arrested on the federal indictment June 7, 2017, in Rochester.
Davis pleaded no contest in state court Dec. 7, 2016, to a charge of assault and was sentenced to 100 days in jail — all of which she already had served. She too had no prior criminal record.
Davis was arrested June 7, 2017, in Rochester, on the federal conspiracy indictment and pleaded not guilty to the charge.
The prosecution’s version of events in her case, also filed by Casey, states, “The defendant was one of many dealers from Rochester who came to Maine to sell drugs.” It says Davis stayed at homes of co-conspirators, where she sold drugs, collected the proceeds and arranged to send them to Rochester.
She has been free on $10,000 unsecured bond pending trial since March 7, under a curfew and with location monitoring.
Betty Adams — 621-5631
Twitter: @betadams
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