EX-WELLS MEN TIED TO SERIES OF CRIMES

Andrew Ross and Daniel Wentworth were making good money running hundreds of
pounds of marijuana between Arizona and their home state of Maine,
according to federal drug agents.

But they got bored after a year of the low-risk operation. So the two
former Wells men, with help from at least five friends, began posing as
police officers or federal agents and robbing other drug dealers,
authorities said.

"They're pretending it's a drug bust, only nobody goes to jail. They're
just ripping them off," said Jim Molesa, a special agent with the Drug
Enforcement Agency in Phoenix.

Federal agents cracked a drug and robbery ring based in Phoenix on
Wednesday, providing some answers to why the two ex-Mainers were crossing
the country last month with weapons, cash, body armor and no identification.

Their trip, which started with a police chase in Lebanon, Maine, on Dec. 9,
ended with a police shootout on an Amtrak train platform in Chicago's Union
Station. Police said the men were on their way to Phoenix, where they were
part of a large drug and robbery operation. Ross, 25, was killed. Wentworth
is recovering in a Chicago hospital and faces a murder charge.

The Maine connections to the Phoenix crime ring continue to mount. On
Wednesday, federal drug agents in Phoenix arrested Casey Fitzgerald, 23,
and Freddie King, 39, both of Millinocket, on charges of conspiracy to
possess marijuana for distribution.

Christopher Parady, 23, of Sanford is being held without bail in York
County Jail on a robbery and kidnapping charge involving the incident in
Lebanon - a nighttime burglary at Gateway Auction on Route 202.

Michael B. Sales, 25, of Bloomfield, Colo., is out on $3,000 bail awaiting
a court appearance in connection with the same robbery.

Lt. Ted Short of the Maine State Police said authorities are looking for
one more Maine man connected to the Phoenix crime ring.

Ross, 25, and Wentworth, 26, moved to Phoenix from Wells three years ago
and began working in posh restaurants. Most of their money came from their
drug-running operation, said Jim Molesa, a special agent with the DEA in
Phoenix.

The group would buy hundreds of pounds of marijuana in Phoenix and somehow
ship it to Maine, Molesa said.

Drug ledgers obtained in Maine show the group was moving hundred-pound
quantities of marijuana on a monthly basis, he said. The drug ring could
double its money by buying in Phoenix and selling on the streets of
Portland, Molesa said.

After about a year, the players apparently got bored, he said.

"They graduated from that to an invasion crew," primarily picking on their
criminal competitors in Maine, Molesa said.

"They're victimizing an offender who doesn't have a recourse to say what
they're doing or what happened," he said.

Sometimes, they disguised themselves as police officers or federal agents
by using fake badges and tactical jumpsuits, he said.

"This is their level of new excitement," Molesa said. "It's not about the
money. They're making money from this other operation."

It was the burglary of Gateway Auctions that allowed authorities to
eventually crack the ring.

State police interrupted a burglary there Dec. 9 after making a routine
traffic stop. Nobody was found, but police did recover a truck and a sports
utility vehicle they believe were used in the burglary.

Guns were found in the truck, and the SUV contained a bag of guns, a
grenade launcher, tranquilizer guns, night-vision equipment, microphones
used in tactical operations, masks, gloves, ammunition, firearms and cash.

Police also found a duffel bag containing 26 handguns, rifles and shotguns
outside the auction house. Police believe the suspects got away with
$30,000 in cash, but had to leave behind the guns, weapons, jewelry and
other items when the burglary was interrupted.

Three days later, Wentworth and Ross paid cash for Amtrak tickets in
Syracuse, N.Y., for Tucson, Ariz. Suspicious train agents - unaware of the
Lebanon burglary or the Phoenix drug ring - notified a DEA drug team at
Chicago's Union Station, where the two had to change trains.

The pair, wearing bulletproof vests and carrying .40-caliber semi-automatic
Glock pistols, extra ammunition, handcuff keys and $15,000 in cash, was
confronted by a DEA agent on the train platform.

Police began firing when one of the men pulled out a gun. Ross ended up
dead, Wentworth was seriously injured, and a Chicago police officer was
also shot. Police believe neither Wentworth nor Ross fired a shot, but
Wentworth was charged with murder for allegedly starting the shooting that
led to Ross' death.

Officials with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms traced
the guns back to people in Arizona who sold the marijuana to Wentworth and
Ross, said Molesa.

With help from DEA and ATF agents in Maine, drug agents in Phoenix arrested
the two Millinocket men Wednesday. Fitzgerald and King, thought by police
to be part of the same drug ring, showed up in a hotel parking lot to buy
200 pounds of marijuana for $180,000, Molesa said. They ended up getting
arrested and were arraigned the same day.

Back in Maine, Parady is in York County Jail awaiting a court appearance on
a robbery charge and a kidnapping charge tied to the Lebanon robbery, said
Short, of the state police.

He said the kidnapping charge involves a man who was threatened with having
his legs cut off if he didn't provide information about guns at Gateway
Auction. The man, who police would not identify, was kept from leaving his
home, Short said.

He said the drug-and-robbery ring has cleared up an unsolved robbery in
Waterboro, but countless others may never be solved because they were never
reported.

"The reality of it is, these people were looking for drugs, guns and money,
and people aren't going to come forward and report to police that someone
stole drugs from their residence," Short said.