The former owner of Port City Music Hall was sentenced Thursday in federal court in New York to 7½ years in prison for his role in smuggling $2.7 million worth of cocaine across the country from California.

Robert Evon, 38, of Portland, also was sentenced to 46 months in prison on charges of trafficking in cocaine, marijuana and LSD for leading a drug ring in Portland while he owned and ran the well-known concert facility on Congress Street. That sentence will run concurrent with the longer sentence.

The total sentence was much shorter than the recommendation outlined in a March sentencing memorandum, which called for a term of 168 to 210 months, or twice what Evon eventually received.

According to court documents, Evon admitted to investigators that he arranged to have two soda vending machines filled with cocaine and then delivered from Los Angeles to a warehouse in Elizabeth, New Jersey.

He hired a South Portland man, Kenneth Irving, to rent a box truck in February 2012 and drive the cocaine-filled vending machines from New Jersey to a storage locker in White River Junction, Vermont. The vending machines held about 78 kilograms worth about $2.7 million.

Irving, who was paid $5,000 for his help, contacted someone in Albany, New York, to meet at the storage facility in Vermont. Irving turned over six large duffel bags of cocaine to that contact, who turned out to be an undercover agent with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Irving was sentenced in 2014 to 57 months in prison.

Evon continued to traffic in drugs even after the cocaine was seized.

He was arrested in July 2013 on the New York charges but the investigation into his dealings in Maine, aided by wiretaps, led to additional charges the following year . In that case, Portland police learned from a wiretap that Gavin Joannides, 23, of Portland, was going to meet Evon at an unnamed bar in Portland to buy cocaine from him in June 2013. Officers stopped the car in which Joannides was a passenger afterward on Commercial Street and seized nearly 30 grams of cocaine from him.

The timing of the wiretap investigation came while Evon was either still the owner of Port City Music Hall or had just recently sold its assets to the company that runs the nearby State Theatre. Both venues are hubs of the downtown Portland music scene.

As part of his plea deal, Evon forfeited his 2010 Chevrolet Tahoe, which he allegedly used in the crimes, and a home on Spring Street in Portland valued at nearly $600,000.

During sentencing on Thursday, Evon’s attorney, Kenneth Moynihan, asked that his incarceration be at a facility where he can receive substance abuse treatment and one that is as close to his family as possible. Moynihan did not respond Thursday to a request for comment.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Rabe also could not be reached for comment.

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