PROVIDENCE — Jorge Pimentel, 36, of Cranston, known as “Big Head,” has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for running what authorities describe as one of Rhode Island’s largest fentanyl operations, Acting U.S. Attorney Sara Miron Bloom announced Wednesday.
Pimentel admitted to operating a drug lab and stash house in Pawtucket where authorities seized 19,315 fentanyl-laced pills designed to look like pharmaceutical Percocet, along with nearly 9 kilograms of powder fentanyl.
The September 2023 raid also yielded an industrial high-speed pill press and 28,000 grams of cutting agents, making it among the largest fentanyl seizures in Rhode Island history.
Authorities said the materials seized represented potential production of more than 633,000 fentanyl-laced pills.
Court documents described Pimentel as a “well-established, large scale fentanyl trafficker” who brokered sales of approximately 34,000 fentanyl-laced pills for $37,000 between May 31, 2023, and September 29, 2023.
U.S. District Court Chief Judge John J. McConnell, Jr. handed down the 240-month sentence on Tuesday, to be followed by five years of federal supervised release.
Pimentel pleaded guilty in December to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute fentanyl, and possession with intent to distribute fentanyl, without a plea agreement.
The FBI’s Rhode Island Safe Streets Task Force led the investigation, with assistance from the Providence Police Department and the DEA.
