A Lynn man has pleaded guilty and been sentenced to up to three years in state prison for possessing more than 80 grams of fentanyl that he intended to distribute, Attorney General Maura Healey announced today.
Alexis Pimentel, 28, pleaded guilty on April 17 to one count of Possession with Intent to Distribute a Class A Substance. After the plea was entered, Judge Thomas Dreschler sentenced him to two to three years in state prison.
“Through our drug enforcement activities, we’ve removed tens of millions of lethal doses of fentanyl from our communities,” said AG Healey. “Working with our partners in federal, state, and local law enforcement is vital to our efforts to disrupt trafficking networks and get illegal drugs off our streets.”
Pimentel was arrested in June 2018 and charged by an Essex County Grand Jury in September 2018 as part of a joint operation by State Police assigned to the AG’s Office, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the Massachusetts State Police Commonwealth Interstate Narcotics Reduction Enforcement Team (CINRET), and the Lynn and Beverly Police Departments. Authorities arrested Pimentel at his Lynn residence after discovering 80 grams of fentanyl packaged for distribution while executing a search warrant at his home.
The AG’s Office has been working closely with its federal, state and local partners to combat illegal drug trafficking. AG Healey formed a Fentanyl Strike Force to more aggressively combat the heroin and prescription drug abuse crisis in New England. In October 2018, the AG’s Office announced the Fentanyl Strike Force had been awarded a nearly $3 million grant to expand its efforts to combat the opioid epidemic and disrupt drug and fentanyl trafficking throughout Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The AG’s Office won this grant from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Community Oriented Policing Services Anti-Heroin Task Force grant program and was one of just 17 proposals funded nationally and the only awarded in New England. This case was prosecuted by Assistant Attorney General Megan McLaughlin of AG Healey’s Enterprise, Major and Cyber Crimes Division. The case was investigated by State Police assigned to the AG’s Office, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the Massachusetts State Police Commonwealth Interstate Narcotics Reduction Enforcement Team (CINRET) and the Lynn and Beverly Police Departments.