Child Exploitation Investigation Leads to 50-Month Sentence for Defendant’s Drug Supplier

Press Release

An investigation into Sebastian Demers led to his drug supplier, Tyler Vangel

PORTLAND, Maine: A Portland man was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Portland for conspiring to distribute cocaine.

U.S. District Judge Jon D. Levy sentenced Tyler Vangel (aka Tyler Linscott, Tyler Carter, Andrew Flanagan), 30, to 50 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release. He pleaded guilty on October 31, 2023.

According to court records, while investigating Sebastian Demers in early 2022 for suspected child exploitation, law enforcement learned that Demers was also selling drugs and that Vangel was Demers' supplier. Investigators opened a separate inquiry into Vangel and learned that between January 2021 and June 2022, Vangel regularly obtained and transported large quantities of cocaine from a Lawrence, Massachusetts-based supplier to be distributed by himself and others, including Demers, to customers in Maine. Among the evidence seized during the investigation was Vangel's phone, which revealed orders from lower-level distributors requesting a "basket" (3.5 grams) and "half key" (half kilogram) as well as Vangel responding about having a "brick" (kilogram).

Homeland Security Investigations investigated the case.

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Updated April 23, 2024