PORTLAND — A federal judge Wednesday ordered probation for an Auburn man who rented out two of his buildings in Lewiston for marijuana growing operations under Maine’s medical marijuana program.

The judge also imposed fines against Timothy Veilleux, 54, as well as his two corporations that owned the buildings.

Veilleux pleaded guilty last year to three federal charges stemming from a 2018 federal pot raid in the Twin Cities.

At a videoconference sentencing, U.S. District Court Judge George Z. Singal said he didn’t believe a prison sentence was warranted.

On a charge of maintaining a drug-involved premises, Veilleux was given three years of probation and a $15,000 fine. The Class C felony is punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $20,000.

Singal said Veilleux’s 1990 federal conviction for a drug crime when he was 24 years old factored into his sentence.

The judge said Veilleux should have declined an offer to become involved in what was pitched as a state medical marijuana business for which Veilleux would become a landlord. Marijuana possession, manufacturing and distribution was and remains illegal under federal law.

Although Veilleux had inquired of his former probation officer about the proposed transaction, Singal said he should have “immediately” sought legal advice from an attorney, who would have told him to “run for the hills.”

Prosecutors said Veilleux had gotten off to a “rocky start” with a federal drug conviction, but had appeared to do well in business and lived a productive and successful professional life before running afoul of the law again by the allure of “easy money” by renting to a marijuana grow operation whose expansion plans must have alerted him to its illegality.

Veilleux told the judge Wednesday that he was naive and “should have done my due diligence.”

He said he never should have rented his buildings for what was purported to be legal medical marijuana manufacture under state law and, had he known then about those operations, he said he never would have.

Veilleux’s wife, Karen, recounted the past nearly three years since federal agents raided their home as nightmarish.

At 6 a.m. one day in February 2018, agents knocked on the door of the couple’s Auburn home armed with a search warrant.

Agents spent the next six hours combing through every room in the home, she said. Their young son and daughter were home at the time, Karen Veilleux told the judge. When her daughter needed to use the bathroom, she was escorted by an agent.

Timothy Veilleux was held in handcuffs.

Her young son asked her: “Do they do this to everyone’s house?”

That morning, she said, was “just the start of so much darkness for our family.”

She said her husband had “spent his entire life trying to do the right thing.” She called him “honest and wholehearted” and said he hadn’t known any illegal organization existed in connection with the spaces he rented.

Two other people spoke on behalf of Timothy Veilleux, including former Lewiston Police Chief and Maine Department of Public Safety Commissioner Michael Kelly, a longtime friend, who called Veilleux “personable, generous and loyal.”

Veilleux’s two companies, 1830 Lisbon St. and Comvest Inc., both in Lewiston, also were charged with maintaining a drug-involved premises. He had pleaded guilty last year on behalf of those companies.

He also had agreed to forfeit $193,448 in proceeds from the sale of 1830 Lisbon St. as well as $85,525 in proceeds from the sale of Comvest Inc. property at 17 Bridge St.

Singal imposed fines of $5,000 against the 1830 Lisbon St. company and $7,500 against Comvest Inc.

Prosecutors had sought the fines.

Defense attorney Stacey Neumann had argued against the fines, reasoning the “substantial forfeiture” agreed to by Veilleux that resulted in the loss of the value of the two properties was financial punishment enough.

In the charge against Veilleux, she had argued for probation only; Assistant U.S. Attorney David Joyce was seeking a period of incarceration not greater than the low end of the federal sentencing guidelines.

Veilleux had waived his right to appeal his conviction and sentence as well as those of his two companies.

Charges of conspiracy to manufacture, distribute and possess with intent to distribute marijuana and marijuana plants against him and his two businesses were dismissed by prosecutors in exchange for the negotiated pleas.

A federal grand jury handed up a 41-count indictment against more than a dozen suspects — largely from Lewiston and Auburn — stemming from federal raids in the Twin Cities area on Feb. 27, 2018.

The aim of the raids was to bust a medical marijuana-growing operation that illegally sold surplus pot and derivatives, according to police and federal drug agents.

Prosecutors alleged the drug-trafficking organization grew and distributed large amounts of marijuana under the cover of Maine’s medical marijuana program, but sold marijuana to buyers who were not participants in the program and included out-of-state customers and laundered the money through area businesses.

Those raids saw federal drug agents execute 20 search warrants on properties in and around Lewiston and Auburn.