80-Year-Old Pot Dealer Gets 10 Years in Prison

North Reading, MA - An 80-year-old drug trafficker with a North Reading connection was sentenced to 10 years in prison in federal court in Boston on Tuesday.

Earlier this month, a plea agreement that would have sentenced Marshall Dion, who stashed over $11 million in a North Reading storage facility, to five to seven years was rejected by a federal judge.

The end of Dion’s criminal enterprises began in 2013, when Dion, then 78, was pulled over in Kansas for going 4 miles per hour over the speed limit.

During the traffic stop, police found $850,000 in Dion’s pick up truck. During the subsequent investigation, police found a GPS, which eventually lead to the discovery of the North Reading storage facility.

In addition to the $11 million, authorities also found nearly 400 pounds of marijuana in the North Reading storage facility.

Over the course of Dion’s criminal career, he sold between 3,000 and 10,000 kilograms of marijuana, according to assistant U.S. Attorney Leah Foley.