MAPLETON, Maine — A Mapleton man has pleaded guilty in federal court to selling methamphetamine in Aroostook County and other parts of Maine, some of which came from the country of Mexico.
Taylor Lovely, 33, pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute and possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine in two separate cases in a federal court in Bangor on Monday, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maine Halsey Frank said.
Lovely’s charges are from his involvement in two separate “conspiracies” to distribute the drug, Frank said. The first involved selling methamphetamine obtained from out-of-state in northern Maine from January 2017 to August 2018. He was indicted on that charge in July 2019, along with several others from Aroostook County.
In the second, Lovely and other co-conspirators obtained methamphetamine from southern and western states — including Arizona and California — that originated in Mexico. They then distributed the substances to residents in Aroostook County and other parts of northern and central Maine, according to court records.
In both cases, Lovely faces between 10 years to life in prison and a fine of up to $10 million. He will be sentenced after the U.S. Probation Office completes a pre-sentence investigation, Frank said.
Aroostook County has long had an issue with substance use disorder among its residents, with methamphetamine being among the most commonly used drugs by those with the disorder.
Methamphetamine is among the most well-used drugs in rural sections of the United States, which experts attribute to it being cheaper and easier to obtain than other substances.
