PORTLAND — A Portland man sentenced in federal court earlier this month for possessing pipe bombs pleaded no contest Monday to a state charge of cocaine trafficking.

Michael Pressey, 30, was sentenced to six months in jail, which he will serve concurrently with his two-year federal sentence. He also was ordered to pay a $400 fine.

Pressey was arrested on the morning of Aug. 17 at the apartment on Park Avenue that he shared with his grandmother. Police raids on three apartments that day were the culmination of a long-term drug trafficking investigation.

During their search of Pressey’s apartment, police discovered 19 pipe bombs in various stages of construction. The nearby Portland Exposition Building and Portland Ice Arena were evacuated that morning, and Portland’s bomb squad detonated some of the devices in a municipal parking lot.

At first, police believed that Pressey may have been stockpiling the pipe bombs for potential use against rivals over drug territory.

But prosecutors have said that no evidence emerged to support that theory. Instead, it appears that bomb-making was a hobby of sorts for Pressey and other members of his family, and was something he had done since he was a boy.

Pressey pleaded guilty to possession of unregistered destructive devices.

At his sentencing in federal court Nov. 9, Pressey said he didn’t know he had to register the devices with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

“I’m sorry for what I have done,” he said. “I plan on never being back in front of this court or any other court.”

 

Staff Writer Trevor Maxwell can be contacted at 791-6451 or at: tmaxwell@pressherald.com