Former New Haven, Connecticut Resident Pleads Guilty to Crack Distribution Conspiracy

Contact: Joel B. Casey
Assistant United States Attorney
Tel: (207) 945-0373

Bangor, Maine:  United States Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II announced that Torrence Benton, 28, formerly of New Haven, Connecticut (currently serving a state prison sentence in the Maine State Prison) pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Bangor to conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute and to distribute 280 grams of a mixture or substance containing cocaine base, commonly referred to as “crack.” 

According to court records, the defendant illegally distributed cocaine base in Bangor area between January 2010 and August 2013.  He obtained the cocaine base from other members of the conspiracy.  He sold and distributed the cocaine base in multiple half gram and gram amounts to others.  The half-gram bags were sold for $50 each and the gram bags were sold for $100 each. The ultimate source for the cocaine base was in the New Haven, Connecticut area and it was transported to the Bangor area by others in the conspiracy.  On April 7, 2013, the defendant was arrested by the Old Town Police Department on state charges and was subsequently found in possession of approximately ten grams of cocaine base.

The defendant faces up to twenty years in prison, a $1,000,000 fine, or both prison and a fine.  He will be sentenced after the completion of a presentence investigation report by the U.S. Probation Office.  He is one of eleven defendants charged in the indictment.

The case was investigated by the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency, the New Haven, Connecticut Office of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives, and the New Haven Connecticut Police Department.