A Whitefield man who is one of five defendants charged with conspiracy to distribute oxycodone was sentenced Thursday to 40 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release.

Peter Poland, 40, had pleaded guilty April 30 to the charge, and the case was postponed for sentencing. U.S. District Court Judge John A. Woodcock Jr. imposed the sentence Thursday in Bangor.

The charge carried a maximum penalty of up to 20 years in prison.

Poland was charged as a result of a wiretap investigation that took place between April and August 2011, according to court documents.

In September 2011, newspaper records show Poland was involved in a four-hour-long standoff with police at his Mills Road home in Whitefield following a report that he had pointed a loaded shotgun at a neighbor’s head.

Police said at the time Poland was intoxicated and had accused the neighbor of telling police about illegal drug use. He is charged with criminal threatening in Lincoln County Superior Court as a result of the standoff, and a hearing on that charge is set for 1 p.m. today.

According to a report prepared by prosecutors in the federal case, the co-conspirators got oxycodone and other drugs outside Maine and distributed them in Kennebec and Cumberland counties.

The report cites a recorded conversations between Poland and the accused ringleader in Maine, Barry Diaz, whose case is pending.

“The evidence would establish that Poland and Diaz were intercepted over the wiretap on numerous occasions discussing the distribution of pills, debts owed by Poland to Diaz, and money Poland intended to collect from his customers,” Assistant U.S. Attorney David B. Joyce writes in the report.

Diaz is charged with three counts of unlawful use of a telephone to commit possession with intent to distribute cocaine and one count of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine.

Charges against four people alleged to be co-conspirators in the oxycodone distribution ring remain pending. They were all indicted on related charges by a federal grand jury in November.

Betty Adams — 621-5631

badams@centralmaine.com