BANGOR — An Enfield man accused of growing marijuana in the basement of his home may have set a statewide record for the number of plants seized by law enforcement.

Richard M. Kuhaneck, 41, was charged Aug. 20 with three counts of cultivation of marijuana, a Class C crime, according to a complaint filed at the Penobscot Judicial Center.

Kuhaneck was in the news earlier this month when his six pet sharks survived a fire that heavily damaged his home at 766 Dodlin Road.

He was charged nearly three months after Penobscot County deputies removed 4,196 marijuana plants from his house, Penobscot County Sheriff Glenn Ross said Thursday.

The plants were immature and ranged in size from 6 inches to 24 inches tall, he said. Because the plants were immature, a value was not placed on the crop, Ross said. Mature plants are estimated by the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency to be worth between $2,000 and $3,000 each, depending on their quality, after they have been dried and processed for sale.

The number of plants seized in Enfield was nearly 1,000 more than what appears to be the previous record-setting seizure, according to statistics provided by the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency. In April 1997, 3,254 plants were seized in Carrying Place Township in Somerset County, Roy McKinney, director of MDEA said earlier this month in an email.

Records do not indicate whether the plants in that crop were mature or immature or whether they were grown indoors or outdoors, McKinney said in the email.

Efforts on Thursday to reach McKinney, who was out of state, to determine whether the Enfield seizure set a new record were unsuccessful.

The most sophisticated growing operation in state history remains the Township 37 marijuana grow discovered Sept. 22, 2009, growing on land owned by Malcolm French, 51, of Enfield, according to the MDEA. Nearly 3,000 mature plants, most of which were 8 feet tall and valued at $3,000 each, were removed from the remote area of Washington County. McKinney estimated in 2009 the street value of the 2,943 plants at about $9 million.

French, along with Robert Berg, 49, of Dexter, Rodney Russell, 49, of South Thomaston, Kendall Chase, 56, of Bradford and Moises Soto, 53, of Mexico were indicted by a federal grand jury in 2012.

Haynes Timerberland Inc., French’s corporation, was also indicted.

All but Soto have pleaded not guilty and have been freed on bail. They are scheduled to be tried in January in U.S. District Court in Bangor.

Soto pleaded guilty July 30 to a drug conspiracy charge and one count of harboring illegal aliens. He is being held awaiting sentencing.

When asked Thursday whether there is a connection between the cases of French and Kuhaneck, who lived in the same town and have been accused of growing marijuana, Penobscot County sheriff’s Deputy Patty McLaughlin, who led the investigation that resulted in the charges against Kuhaneck, said, “Not that I’m aware of.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joel Casey, who is prosecuting French and his co-defendants, Thursday declined to comment on a possible connection.

French’s bail conditions include his not committing any new crimes. A motion to revoke his bail has not been filed by U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services, the agency tasked with seeing that federal defendants on bail abide by bail conditions.

McLaughlin said earlier this month that the investigation that led to the seizure of the marijuana plants at Kuhaneck’s house May 16 began three days earlier when she responded to the report of a fight. Kuhaneck was charged in that incident with two counts of misdemeanor assault to which he has pleaded not guilty.

While investigating the fight that occurred on the side of Route 2 in Enfield between Kuhaneck and another man and a juvenile, McLaughlin searched Kuhaneck’s car and found a bag of marijuana on the floor behind the passenger seat. That gave her probable cause to get a search warrant for Kuhaneck’s house, she said.

The deputy Thursday declined to comment on what the men were fighting about or whether it was connected to the marijuana growing operation.

McLaughlin did not arrest Kuhaneck last month but issued him a summons, according to court documents.

Kuhaneck has not been indicted by a Penobscot County grand jury, according to the Penobscot County district attorney’s office. He is scheduled to make his first court appearance Oct. 10 on the charges.

Nearly two weeks after Kuhaneck was charged with cultivating marijuana, the house from which the plants were removed was heavily damaged by fire on Labor Day, according to a previously published report.

The blaze started when Kuhaneck’s father, whose name was not released by firefighters, was renovating an upstairs bedroom, according to the story published online Sept. 3. A spark from soldered pipes ignited the fire.

The house is salvageable, Lowell Fire Chief Rick Smart said at the time. The fire gutted the bathroom, an adjoining bedroom and heavily damaged a third bedroom and the attic, he said.

The six sharks were contained in a tank in an undamaged part of the house, according to the report. It was unclear whether the fish were true sharks or a tropical species that resemble sharks and is named for them.

If convicted of cultivating marijuana, Kuhaneck faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000. He faces up to a year in prison and a fine of up to $2,000 on the Class D assault charges.

French and his co-defendants face between 10 years and life in prison and a $10 million fine on the federal drug conspiracy and manufacturing marijuana charges.

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