Bangor, Maine: United States Attorney Halsey B. Frank announced Matthew Johnson, 39, of Burnham, Maine, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court by Judge Lance E. Walker to 37 months in prison and three years of supervised release for being an unlawful user of heroin and bath salts in possession of a firearm. The defendant pleaded guilty on June 21, 2018.
Court records reveal on April 20, 2017, officers from the Westbrook and Scarborough Police Departments stopped the defendant’s vehicle which had reportedly fled the scene of an accident. A search of the vehicle revealed controlled substances, drug paraphernalia and a locked safe. Inside the locked safe, officers found a fully loaded.357 Magnum revolver, bath salts and other drugs. The defendant admitted he was an addict. The ensuing investigation revealed that the defendant had purchase the revolver in Bangor and was an unlawful user of heroin and bath salts.
In imposing the sentence, Judge Walker noted the “deadly and destructive" influence of the combination of illegal drug use and firearm possession within our society.
The investigation was conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency as well as the Westbrook and Scarborough Police Departments.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
