BANGOR DAILY NEWS • March 4, 2021
A federal judge on Wednesday ordered a South Thomaston man convicted of helping to run Maine’s most sophisticated pot farm to return to prison. Rodney Russell, 57, who helped manage the Washington County operation, had been free on bail for nearly a year as he awaited a ruling on his appeal. Co-defendant Malcolm French, 59, of Enfield, who was convicted of running the Washington County marijuana operation using undocumented workers, remains free on bail. French and Russell were convicted by a jury in January 2014 of operating an illegal pot plantation from which the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency seized 2,943 mature marijuana plants. The farm was discovered on Sept. 22, 2009, in a 10-acre swamp on 22,000 acres of land in Township 37 owned by Haynes Timberland Inc.