PORTLAND — A Lewiston man convicted in 2016 of intent to distribute crack cocaine and heroin is back in jail after reportedly selling fentanyl and cocaine in Auburn.
Vincent Steed Androscoggin County Jail photo
Federal agents arrested Vincent L. Steed, 39, last week on a warrant charging he violated the terms of his supervised release.
Steed was freed from federal prison last fall after serving his sentence for the felony crime of possession with intent to distribute cocaine base and heroin, a charge punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
Steed was sentenced to five years and three months in prison, plus three years of supervised release.
According to court records, the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency conducted a controlled purchase of fentanyl from Steed on June 2. A day later, Steed sold fentanyl and cocaine.
The MDEA is charging Steed with three counts of aggravated trafficking in scheduled drugs and violation of condition of release, according to a federal probation officer.
Steed appeared in U.S. District Court Monday by videoconference from Cumberland County Jail in Portland. He asked for a preliminary hearing on probable cause of the charge that he violated the terms of his supervised release by engaging in criminal conduct.
U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge John H. Rich III ordered that hearing as well as a hearing on his release that is scheduled for Thursday. Rich also assigned Steed a court-appointed attorney after Steed said he no longer worked as a roofer and lacked the funds to hire a lawyer.
Steed pleaded guilty to the earlier drug charge on which he was sentenced.
During sentencing, it was revealed that he grew up in the projects of the Bronx, raised by a single mother who was addicted to crack cocaine. He was placed in his grandmother’s custody by the state after he was found to have been abused. Before he was 10 years old, his father was murdered, shot in the head outside his apartment, according to court papers.
When he was 11, his grandmother died of AIDS from drug abuse and Steed was sent back to live with his mother, according to court papers. He fell into drug and alcohol abuse in his early teens and dropped out of school at 15, the same age when his first child was born.
Steed moved in with an aunt in Brooklyn and found odd jobs to support his son, despite having little education and no real job skills. At age 18, he was convicted of attempted robbery and went to jail for nearly two years, according to court papers.
At age 25, he was shot outside his apartment because he had not joined a gang, court papers said. The bullet passed through his arm and lungs, and during his three-week hospital stay, he was given morphine and OxyContin. After his release from the hospital, Steed allegedly sought street painkillers for the intense pain from his surgeries.
In an effort to change his life, Steed moved to Lewiston after a friend had relocated to Maine and liked it. He worked in construction, but his addiction to painkillers continued to plague him and he began buying and selling the drugs to support his habit and provide for his children, according to court papers.
According to prosecutors, drug agents breached the door of an apartment on Lincoln Street in Lewiston where they found Steed with two cell phones and heroin next to him. They found heroin and crack cocaine elsewhere in the apartment along with digital scales, scissors and a razorblades, paraphernalia used in processing and distribution of narcotics, according to court papers.
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