PORTLAND, Maine: A Massachusetts man was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Portland for conspiring to distribute fentanyl.U.S. District Judge Stacey D. Neumann sentenced Maximo Pepin, aka Manny, 30, to 15 years in federal prison and five years of supervised release.
Pepin pleaded guilty on July 22, 2025.According to court records, in 2024 and 2025, Pepin oversaw what was known as the most prolific drug operation in southern Maine. He and associates brought kilograms of fentanyl, cocaine, and methamphetamine from Massachusetts to Maine, where Pepin directed downstream distribution to drug traffickers within Maine. Agents with the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) developed evidence regarding Pepin’s operation, seized drugs supplied by Pepin, and ultimately intercepted Pepin’s phone and text communications in the spring of 2025. Through those interceptions, investigators learned that Pepin repeatedly threatened violence as part of his operation.
He threatened to kill one associate who obtained drugs from him and discussed putting battery acid in the drugs of another individual for stealing money from him. When he was arrested in April 2025, he was found in possession of phones used to run his drug network and a handgun with an extended magazine. Pepin has prior convictions in Massachusetts for drug trafficking, armed robbery, and kidnapping.The DEA investigated this case, with assistance from the FBI, the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency, Maine State Police, the Portland Police Department, the South Portland Police Department, the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office, and the Maine Attorney General’s Office.This prosecution is part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad.
Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of United States law enforcement towards identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations, which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders. In performing this work, the HSTF places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children. The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States. The Maine HSTF comprises agents and officers from FBI; DEA; Homeland Security Investigations; IRS-Criminal Investigations; U.S.
Marshals Service; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Diplomatic Security Service; U.S. Customs and Border Protection; U.S. Border Patrol; Coast Guard Investigative Service; and Transportation Security Administration, with the prosecution being led by the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Maine.###