Turner Man Sentenced to Six Years in Prison for Cultivating Marijuana and Other Offenses

PORTLAND, Maine:  A Turner man was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Portland for manufacturing 100 or more marijuana plants, possessing with intent to distribute marijuana, possessing an unregistered silencer and transferring property subject to forfeiture, U.S. Attorney Halsey B. Frank announced.

U.S. District Judge George Z. Singal sentenced Andrew Waite, 32, to six years in prison and four years of supervised release. Judge Singal also ordered Waite to pay a $10,000 fine. Waite pleaded guilty on October 16, 2019.

According to court records, on February 27, 2018, law enforcement officers searched Waite’s residence and two warehouses under his control. In the warehouses, agents seized more than 500 pounds of marijuana, 104 sheets of marijuana concentrate and more than 350 marijuana plants. In his residence, agents seized approximately 100 pounds of marijuana, approximately $216,000 in United States currency, a 2010 Ferrari, firearms, ammunition and a silencer with no markings or serial number. 

On April 18, 2018, Waite transferred title of his residence to his brother in order to prevent or impair seizure of the property for criminal forfeiture. In May 2020, Judge Singal ordered that residence criminally forfeited for facilitating the drug offenses.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the IRS Criminal Investigation Division investigated the case.

The prosecution is a result of the ongoing efforts by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) Program, a partnership between federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies.  The OCDETF mission is to identify, investigate, and prosecute high-level members of drug trafficking enterprises, bringing together the combined expertise and unique abilities of federal, state, and local law enforcement.