RI Man Nicknamed "Big Head" Sentenced to Prison in One of State's "Largest Fentanyl Seizures"
GoLocalProv News Team
RI Man Nicknamed "Big Head" Sentenced to Prison in One of State's "Largest Fentanyl Seizures"
PHOTO: Unsplash/Karim GhantousJorge Pimentel, also known as “Big Head,” 36, of Cranston, has been sentenced to twenty years in federal prison, announced Acting United States Attorney Sara Miron Bloom.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Pimentel previously admitted to a federal judge that he ran a highly productive drug lab and a stash house in Pawtucket from which 19,315 fentanyl-laced pills made to resemble pharmaceutical grade Percocet pills and nearly 9 kilograms of powder fentanyl were seized by law enforcement.
The seizure of a combined total of over sixteen kilograms of fentanyl-laced pills and fentanyl powder, an industrial grade high-speed pill press, and twenty-eight thousand grams of cutting agents used in the manufacturer of the fake pill seized in September 2023, is among the largest seizures of fentanyl in Rhode Island.
The fentanyl powder and already cut mixture seized in this case represented the potential production of more than 633,000 fentanyl-laced pills.
Court documents detail that Pimentel was already a “well-established, large scale fentanyl trafficker” when, on multiple occasions between May 31, 2023, and September 29, 2023, he brokered sales of a total of approximately 34,000 fentanyl-laced pills for which he was paid $37,000.
Pimentel was sentenced on Tuesday by U.S. District Court Chief Judge John J. McConnell, Jr., to 240 months of incarceration to be followed by five years of federal supervised release.
He pleaded guilty in December 2024 as charged by indictment with 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.
