A New York City man was sentenced in federal court in Portland to 20 years in prison on drug trafficking charges that included sales out of a Lewiston apartment.

Shareef Nash, 34, also known as “Slow Motion,” was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge D. Brock Hornby to 20 years followed by five years of supervised release for conspiring to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine, “crack” cocaine and heroin. He pleaded guilty in September to the charges.

According to prosecutors and from the trial of co-conspirator, Hasan Worthy, Nash was the leader of drug trafficking ring that bought cocaine from a dealer in New York City then brought it to his house in Buxton using female couriers to carry it in their bodies. Once in Maine, it was processed into crack cocaine, then sold from apartments in Lewiston, Portland and Waterville. Heroin also was sold from those apartments.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Perry, who prosecuted the case, said the man responsible for Lewiston sales was Trezjuan Thompson, 29. He was assisted by female associates.

One of his associates, Lindsey Mercier, Thompson’s girlfriend at the time, also was implicated in an Auburn arson with him in 2009, when he tried to burn down his ex-girlfriend’s apartment. Mercier and Thompson were charged with drug crimes in connection with Nash, Perry said.

Following the arson charge, prosecutors said Thompson conspired with others in 2009 and 2010 to distribute crack cocaine in the Twin Cities using phones at Androscoggin County Jail in Auburn and the Maine State Prison.

Thompson pleaded guilty in 2011 to federal arson and drug charges.   

During an investigation, drug agents seized 250 grams of cocaine from five female couriers, $11,000 worth of cocaine, digital scales, roughly $6,000 in cash and five handguns.

Nash is the latest member of the group involved in the drug conspiracy to be sentenced. Hornby sentenced 11 others in the group to up to nine years in prison. Worthy and another member of the group await sentencing, U.S. Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II said in a written statement Thursday.

Involved in the investigation of Nash were the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency; Portland Police Department; York County Sheriff’s Office; Maine State Police; and the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces. That task force is a partnership composed of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies aimed at identifying, disrupting and dismantling the most serious drug trafficking, weapons, trafficking and money laundering organizations and those primarily responsible for the nation’s illegal drug supply.

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