A Bronx, New York, man arrested in 2017 in Vassalboro and later indicted on federal charges was sentenced to more than 14 years in prison last week.

Andre Fields, 56, pleaded guilty in October 2018 to conspiring with others to distribute more than a kilogram of heroin and 280 grams of cocaine base produced out of state from homes and hotel rooms in central Maine in the period from 2015 to 2017.

Court documents said Fields and others brought the drugs to central Maine, and he and people working at his direction repackaged and distributed the drugs to other dealers and users.

Fields, who is also known as “Coop,” Pops,” “Boss” and “Unc,” was sentenced last week to 170 months in prison and five years of supervised release by Judge John A. Woodcock Jr. at U.S. District Court in Bangor.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, with assistance from Maine Drug Enforcement Agency, the Kennebec County Sheriff’s Office, Augusta police and Waterville police.

Fields was arrested in December 2017 in Vassalboro after Maine DEA agents and Augusta police stopped a car in which he was a passenger as part of an investigation into the sale of heroin and crack cocaine in Kennebec County.

Fields already was serving a sentence at Maine State Prison. In April 2018, he was sentenced on two counts of aggravated trafficking in cocaine base and heroin/fentanyl on Dec. 6, 2017, in Vassalboro. He was ordered to serve an initial six years and the remainder of his 15-year term was suspended while he spent three years on probation.

The charges against him carried a minimum sentence of 10 years with a maximum sentence of up to life in prison.

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