U.S. Attorney Darcie N. McElwee | U.S. Department of Justice
A man from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, has been sentenced in U.S. District Court in Portland for distributing fentanyl. Jerome Hovey Leclair, aged 39, received a sentence of 38 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Leclair entered a guilty plea on July 11, 2024.
Court records indicate that in April 2023, under the direction of the Berwick Police Department, a cooperating source met with Leclair at his residence to discuss purchasing counterfeit Oxycodone pills. During this meeting, the informant observed multiple plastic bags containing small blue pills and received one pill as a sample from Leclair. In June 2023, Leclair agreed to sell the informant 100 pills and offered an additional 25 free to increase potential profits from their sale. This phone conversation was recorded, and surveillance was established prior to the controlled purchase at Leclair's residence and near the planned meeting location. An undercover officer accompanied the informant during the transaction.
In July 2023, an undercover officer contacted Leclair via text message to negotiate another pill purchase, which took place in Kittery and was documented on video and audio recordings. On July 7, 2023, New Hampshire State Police stopped Leclair’s vehicle in Seabrook, N.H., recovering 500 blue circular pills along with approximately 30 grams of methamphetamine. In August 2023, further negotiations and transactions were conducted between the informant and Leclair in New Hampshire.
The investigation involved collaboration between the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and Berwick Police Department with assistance from New Hampshire State Police.
