Pepo Herd El, 51, of Dorchester, was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for illegally carrying a loaded pistol and possessing armor-piercing ammunition, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts.
As a convicted felon, Herd El was prohibited from possessing firearms, but his online purchasing history, which included firearm accessories and chemicals for explosive compounds, led to his identification.
On Thanksgiving Day 2020, he was detained at the Ruggles MBTA station, where law enforcement discovered a loaded semi-automatic pistol, three spare magazines, 45 rounds of ammunition, a knife, an infrared camera, and a bulletproof vest. Herd El had claimed he was on his way to Thanksgiving dinner while wearing a jacket labeled security.
During a subsequent search of his home, officers recovered a magazine with armor-piercing rounds, blueprints for gun barrel designs, firearm suppressors, and materials to manufacture ammunition and explosives.
Herd El, who followed the sovereign citizen ideology—an anti-government and anti-authority movement—pleaded guilty in December 2024 to two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition.