Pubdate: Sat, 13 Jan 2001
Source: Portland Press Herald (ME)
Copyright: 2001 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
Contact:  50 Monument Square, Suite 302, Portland, ME 04101
Fax: (207) 879-1042
Website: http://www.portland.com/
Forum: http://www.portland.com/cgi-bin/COMMUNITY/netforum/community/a/1
Author: Grace Murphy, Portland Press Herald Writer

EX-WELLS MEN TIED TO SERIES OF CRIMES

Andrew Ross and Daniel Wentworth were making good money running hundreds of 
pounds of marijuana between Arizona and their home state of Maine, 
according to federal drug agents.

But they got bored after a year of the low-risk operation. So the two 
former Wells men, with help from at least five friends, began posing as 
police officers or federal agents and robbing other drug dealers, 
authorities said.

"They're pretending it's a drug bust, only nobody goes to jail. They're 
just ripping them off," said Jim Molesa, a special agent with the Drug 
Enforcement Agency in Phoenix.

Federal agents cracked a drug and robbery ring based in Phoenix on 
Wednesday, providing some answers to why the two ex-Mainers were crossing 
the country last month with weapons, cash, body armor and no identification.

Their trip, which started with a police chase in Lebanon, Maine, on Dec. 9, 
ended with a police shootout on an Amtrak train platform in Chicago's Union 
Station. Police said the men were on their way to Phoenix, where they were 
part of a large drug and robbery operation. Ross, 25, was killed. Wentworth 
is recovering in a Chicago hospital and faces a murder charge.

The Maine connections to the Phoenix crime ring continue to mount. On 
Wednesday, federal drug agents in Phoenix arrested Casey Fitzgerald, 23, 
and Freddie King, 39, both of Millinocket, on charges of conspiracy to 
possess marijuana for distribution.

Christopher Parady, 23, of Sanford is being held without bail in York 
County Jail on a robbery and kidnapping charge involving the incident in 
Lebanon - a nighttime burglary at Gateway Auction on Route 202.

Michael B. Sales, 25, of Bloomfield, Colo., is out on $3,000 bail awaiting 
a court appearance in connection with the same robbery.

Lt. Ted Short of the Maine State Police said authorities are looking for 
one more Maine man connected to the Phoenix crime ring.

Ross, 25, and Wentworth, 26, moved to Phoenix from Wells three years ago 
and began working in posh restaurants. Most of their money came from their 
drug-running operation, said Jim Molesa, a special agent with the DEA in 
Phoenix.

The group would buy hundreds of pounds of marijuana in Phoenix and somehow 
ship it to Maine, Molesa said.

Drug ledgers obtained in Maine show the group was moving hundred-pound 
quantities of marijuana on a monthly basis, he said. The drug ring could 
double its money by buying in Phoenix and selling on the streets of 
Portland, Molesa said.

After about a year, the players apparently got bored, he said.

"They graduated from that to an invasion crew," primarily picking on their 
criminal competitors in Maine, Molesa said.

"They're victimizing an offender who doesn't have a recourse to say what 
they're doing or what happened," he said.

Sometimes, they disguised themselves as police officers or federal agents 
by using fake badges and tactical jumpsuits, he said.

"This is their level of new excitement," Molesa said. "It's not about the 
money. They're making money from this other operation."

It was the burglary of Gateway Auctions that allowed authorities to 
eventually crack the ring.

State police interrupted a burglary there Dec. 9 after making a routine 
traffic stop. Nobody was found, but police did recover a truck and a sports 
utility vehicle they believe were used in the burglary.

Guns were found in the truck, and the SUV contained a bag of guns, a 
grenade launcher, tranquilizer guns, night-vision equipment, microphones 
used in tactical operations, masks, gloves, ammunition, firearms and cash.

Police also found a duffel bag containing 26 handguns, rifles and shotguns 
outside the auction house. Police believe the suspects got away with 
$30,000 in cash, but had to leave behind the guns, weapons, jewelry and 
other items when the burglary was interrupted.

Three days later, Wentworth and Ross paid cash for Amtrak tickets in 
Syracuse, N.Y., for Tucson, Ariz. Suspicious train agents - unaware of the 
Lebanon burglary or the Phoenix drug ring - notified a DEA drug team at 
Chicago's Union Station, where the two had to change trains.

The pair, wearing bulletproof vests and carrying .40-caliber semi-automatic 
Glock pistols, extra ammunition, handcuff keys and $15,000 in cash, was 
confronted by a DEA agent on the train platform.

Police began firing when one of the men pulled out a gun. Ross ended up 
dead, Wentworth was seriously injured, and a Chicago police officer was 
also shot. Police believe neither Wentworth nor Ross fired a shot, but 
Wentworth was charged with murder for allegedly starting the shooting that 
led to Ross' death.

Officials with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms traced 
the guns back to people in Arizona who sold the marijuana to Wentworth and 
Ross, said Molesa.

With help from DEA and ATF agents in Maine, drug agents in Phoenix arrested 
the two Millinocket men Wednesday. Fitzgerald and King, thought by police 
to be part of the same drug ring, showed up in a hotel parking lot to buy 
200 pounds of marijuana for $180,000, Molesa said. They ended up getting 
arrested and were arraigned the same day.

Back in Maine, Parady is in York County Jail awaiting a court appearance on 
a robbery charge and a kidnapping charge tied to the Lebanon robbery, said 
Short, of the state police.

He said the kidnapping charge involves a man who was threatened with having 
his legs cut off if he didn't provide information about guns at Gateway 
Auction. The man, who police would not identify, was kept from leaving his 
home, Short said.

He said the drug-and-robbery ring has cleared up an unsolved robbery in 
Waterboro, but countless others may never be solved because they were never 
reported.

"The reality of it is, these people were looking for drugs, guns and money, 
and people aren't going to come forward and report to police that someone 
stole drugs from their residence," Short said.
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