A man who used to reside at a Wiscasset motel has been convicted of aggravated drug trafficking and will spend the next 66 months in prison.

Fermin Sawtell, 40, who lists his address as Dresden but formerly lived in Bath and Wiscasset, pleaded guilty to Class A aggravated drug trafficking on May 18 and was sentenced May 26. Sawtell was arrested by special agents from the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency in 2014. Sawtell also pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of misusing an Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card.

Sawtell was sentenced to 66 months in prison for the trafficking charge, and was given another six months in jail for the misuse of the EBT card, which will run concurrently with his other sentence. A Class C illegal importation of drugs charge was dismissed. He was also ordered to pay $535 in fines within six months of his release.

Sawtell and his fiancée, Amy Varney, 20, were arrested Sept. 25, 2014 by agents from the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency.

MDEA agents executed a search warrant on Sawtell's motel room, where he claimed to have been living. Once inside agents found drugs, packaging for distribution, digital scales and hypodermic needles. While the initial report stated that it was heroin found in the room, Sawtell was convicted of illegally trafficking in Fentanyl, which is also an opiate.

According to the government's drug abuse database, Fentanyl is often mixed with heroin or cocaine, and is also used on its own as a painkiller. It is a schedule W drug, and is regulated in Maine.

Sawtell and Varney were both indicted by a Lincoln County Grand Jury in December. Varney, of Woolwich, was charged with Class B unlawful trafficking of scheduled drugs, Class C illegal importation and Class D improper use of a public benefits card. He will have a docket call in July.

According to the original affidavit, Varney allegedly admitted that she and Sawtell had imported the drugs from a source in Rochester, New Hampshire, and were distributing them throughout the Midcoast.

Sawtell, who is a lifetime registrant on the Maine Sex Offender Registry, had previous convictions for possession or delivery of cannabis, and possession with intent to distribute cocaine in Florida in 1999. Sawtell is currently in custody at the Maine State Prison in Warren with an earliest release date of July 25, 2019.