PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A Rhode Island man has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison after what prosecutors are calling one of the state’s largest fentanyl busts.
Jorge Pimentel, a/k/a “Big Head,” 36, of Cranston, was sentenced on Tuesday to 240 months of incarceration to be followed by five years of federal supervised release, Acting U.S. Attorney Sara Miron Bloom said in a statement on Wednesday.
U.S. District Court Chief Judge John McConnell Jr. handed down his sentence.
Pimentel pleaded guilty in December to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute fentanyl, and possession with intent to distribute fentanyl. No plea agreement was filed in this case.
Pimentel previously admitted to a federal judge that he ran a highly productive drug lab and a stash house in Pawtucket, Miron Bloom said. There, 19,315 fentanyl-laced pills were manufactured to resemble pharmaceutical-grade Percocet pills. Nearly 9 kilograms of powder fentanyl were seized by law enforcement.
In total, investigators seized more than 16 kilograms of fentanyl-laced pills and fentanyl powder, an industrial grade high-speed pill press, and 28,000 grams of cutting agents used in manufacturing the fake pill seized in September 2023.
The case is “among the largest seizures of fentanyl in Rhode Island,” Miron Bloom said.
“The fentanyl powder and already cut mixture seized in this case represented the potential production of more than 633,000 fentanyl-laced pills,” Miron Bloom said in her statement.
Court documents detail that Pimentel was already a “well-established, large scale fentanyl trafficker” when, multiple times between May 31, 2023, and Sept. 29, 2023, he brokered sales of a total of approximately 34,000 fentanyl-laced pills for which he was paid $37,000.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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