PORTLAND – A Connecticut man who smuggled cocaine to Maine this year to sell in the Portland area was sentenced this week in federal court to serve six years in prison.

Anthony Cardoza, 31, of Bridgeport, Conn., had pleaded guilty June 13 in U.S. District Court in Portland to a charge of possession with intent to distribute cocaine.

Cardoza was the passenger in a 2004 Range Rover that Maine State Police stopped as it headed northbound on the Maine Turnpike on March 2.

The trooper ordered the driver, a woman, out of the vehicle and questioned Cardoza, who admitted that he had 200 grams of cocaine in the center console of the SUV. When the trooper couldn’t find it, Cardoza re-entered the vehicle and flipped a switch revealing a compartment beneath the center console, according to court records.

At a sentencing hearing Tuesday, Judge George Singal also ordered Cardoza to serve three years of supervised release after completing his prison term. Cardoza filed an appeal with the court on Wednesday.

The court also ordered the Range Rover be forfeited, according to court records.


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