A former drug dealer from Trenton was sentenced Monday in federal court in Massachusetts to time she already has served in prison, which is more than two years.
Shelby Kleffman, 34, was arrested by the FBI in March 2021 on charges that she was selling large quantities of fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine in eastern Maine. The FBI said Kleffman was working with a Massachusetts-based drug gang to bring drugs to Hancock County that she then sold.
Kleffman’s criminal activity spilled into public view in December of 2020 when a Milbridge couple forced their way into her home off Route 230, shot two men — one of whom was Kleffman’s father — and stabbed a third, police said. They also stole two safes that each contained between $5,000 and $10,000 in cash. Kleffman was not home at the time of the robbery.
The couple, Larry and Sherry Smith, were arrested about an hour later when they crashed their car at the intersection of Mann Hill and Bagaduce roads in Holden.
Three months later, Kleffman was arrested on federal drug trafficking charges after police pulled her over while on Interstate 395 in Brewer. As part of the same investigation, the FBI also charged two Massachusetts men — Armani Minier-Tejada, of Salem, and Miguel Minier, of Lynn — with federal drug trafficking offenses.
Over a span of five days in March 2021, just a few days before she was arrested by the FBI, Kleffman allegedly made three trips to a Bangor short-term rental from her home in Trenton to conduct drug transactions with the men and others involved in the drug ring, according to court documents.
Kleffman and Minier-Tejada discussed drug transactions by text, citing quantities and price, including one sale of 235 grams of fentanyl for $115,000. Minier-Tejada and Minier often provided drugs to Kleffman up front with the understanding that she would repay them later at a pre-agreed price, according to the FBI,
Kleffman and Minier-Tejada also discussed in text conversations the importance of carrying firearms, the FBI said. They discussed the possibility of using guns to harm or intimidate a rival drug gang in Maine believed to have connections to a man accused of shooting Kleffman’s father.
Kleffman pleaded guilty to the charges in August 2021. As part of her sentence, she also has to serve three years of supervised release and pay a special assessment of $100.
Kleffman remained in federal prison from the time of her arrest until this past July, when she was released with the condition that she enroll in a residential drug treatment center. During the 28 months she spent in prison, she was granted temporary release for only 14 hours on March 9, 2023, with an FBI escort, to visit her dying father at Northern Light Maine Coast Hospital in Ellsworth, according to federal court documents.
Minier-Tejada was found guilty of federal drug trafficking charges during a trial in Massachusetts this past June, but has yet to be sentenced, according to an online database of federal court cases
Information about the charges against Minier was unavailable Tuesday.
