A federal judge in Maine handed down a four‑year prison term to Ramon De Leon, a Dominican citizen who entered the United States on a baseball visa before turning to drug trafficking.
De Leon and his brother Alexis conspired to move more than 20 kilograms of fentanyl from the Boston area to the Bangor region, using a Facebook page called “Leon Leon” to advertise the illicit product.
During a routine traffic stop on Interstate 95 north of Fairfield, state police observed the brothers and an unidentified woman exit a basement in Dorchester and load into a white Honda SUV. When stopped, the men attempted to dump the fentanyl into a jug of liquid, but the effort failed and the drugs were seized.
Fentanyl’s grip on New England
Fentanyl has become the leading cause of overdose fatalities in Maine and across the United States, responsible for a staggering share of drug‑related deaths in 2023.
Prosecutors, led by Maine Assistant U.S. Attorney Ethan Plaut, argued for a substantial term, citing the operation’s scale and the deadly impact of the substance.
Judge Stacey D. Neumann imposed the sentence after hearing the government’s case, bringing the total number of convictions in the investigation to five.
The case underscores how a sport‑related visa can mask a shift into a dangerous drug network that fuels the national overdose crisis, a trend that has claimed hundreds of lives in Maine alone.