fb-pixelOctogenarian marijuana kingpin’s sentencing postponed - The Boston Globe Skip to main content

Octogenarian marijuana kingpin’s sentencing postponed

Marshall Herbert Dion. Junction City (Kan.) Police Department via AP/file 2013

A federal judge Thursday postponed the sentencing of Marshall Herbert Dion, the octogenarian who pleaded guilty in October to running a massive marijuana-dealing and money-laundering operation.

US District Court Judge Denise Casper did not accept the plea agreement with federal prosecutors, under which Dion would have served five to seven years in federal prison, saying that sentencing guidelines call for a sentence of 360 months, or 30 years. Casper asked attorneys for both sides to file written arguments by Feb. 26 explaining why she should sentence Dion to less. The sentencing was rescheduled for March 10.

Dion owned houses in Massachusetts, Colorado, and Arizona; had $11 million stashed in a North Reading storage facility; and once crawled away from a plane crash in Wisconsin as thousands of dollars in suspected drug profits floated through the air around him.

Advertisement



Dion’s unraveling began during a traffic stop in Junction City, Kan., in June 2013, when a police officer pulled him over for driving 80 miles per hour in a 75-miles-per-hour zone. During the stop, the officer searched Dion’s beat-up pickup truck and found nearly $850,000 in cash.

The discovery sparked a federal investigation that ultimately led to the discovery of $2 million in a bank account, another $880,000 in an Arizona building, and the storage facility in North Reading, where authorities found 395 pounds of marijuana and $11 million in cash.

Prosecutors have said Dion sold as much as 10,000 kilograms, or 22,000 pounds, of marijuana, dating back to 1992.

Dion’s most recent conviction comes after a lengthy criminal career. He was convicted in Massachusetts in the late 1980s of drug trafficking after authorities in Boston found about 180 pounds of marijuana in a 1986 Chrysler sedan. Police later found 101 pounds of marijuana stashed in a commercial storage building in Lynnfield.

Advertisement



After the plane crash in Wisconsin in 1985, Dion was found crawling through a muddy field, though he denied that the $112,000 in cash found inside the plane and floating through the air was his.

Dion faces charges in the current case of conspiracy to deal marijuana, possession with intent to deal marijuana, and money laundering.


Milton J. Valencia can be reached at mvalencia @globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @miltonvalencia.