BANGOR (AP) — A Mexican man accused of overseeing a large marijuana-growing operation using migrant workers in the wilderness of eastern Maine pleaded guilty to federal charges on Tuesday.
Moises Soto, 53, of Nuevo Leon, Mexico, was one of five men and a timber company indicted in September on charges stemming from a 2009 raid in which drug agents uprooted nearly 3,000 marijuana plants in Township 37 in Washington County.
Under an agreement with prosecutors, Soto pleaded guilty to conspiracy to grow more than 1,000 marijuana plants and to one count of harboring a worker who entered the country illegally. Soto, who has been detained since his arrest at the Texas border in March, can appeal his sentence if it exceeds four years in prison.
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