Mobile Woman Receives Statutory Maximum 20-Year Prison Sentence for Firearms-Trafficking Conspiracy and Tampering with Evidence in Homeland Security Task Force Takedown of[...]

MOBILE, AL - A Mobile woman was sentenced to 240 months in prison for engaging in a firearms-trafficking conspiracy and tampering with evidence in connection with a multimillion-dollar drug-trafficking organization ("DTO") that distributed bulk cocaine and fentanyl and used children as couriers.

According to court documents and evidence presented at a three-week trial, Exavieria Deagnes Maxie ("Exavieria"), 37, aided a lucrative, Mobile-based DTO led by her brother-in-law, Glennie Antonio McGee ("McGee"), and her sister, Echandza Dianca Maxie ("Echandza"). The DTO distributed hundreds of pounds of cocaine and tens of thousands of fentanyl pills between 2017 and 2024. Exavieria assisted the DTO by, among other things, trafficking a loaded firearm and tampering with DTO evidence.

In early 2024, agents with Homeland Security Investigations ("HSI") initiated a court-authorized wiretap investigation of the McGee DTO's criminal activities. As part of that investigation, agents intercepted thousands of incriminating phone calls and videos from a covert close-circuit television ("CCTV") camera installed in McGee's Cadillac Escalade. Agents also seized multiple kilograms of cocaine, more than 1,000 fentanyl pills, and several firearms connected to the DTO.

In June 2024, agents arrested McGee following a brief high-speed chase in Mobile. Agents boxed in McGee's vehicle and encountered him with three kilograms of cocaine sitting in his lap. McGee then confessed in a videotaped interview that he had been dealing bulk cocaine since 2017 and earned $20,000 per month in profits.

Following McGee's arrest, agents intercepted Exavieria and Echandza plotting to conceal evidence while operating the bugged Escalade. Specifically, Echandza gave Exavieria, a convicted felon, a shoebox full of custom jewelry and a loaded .380 caliber pistol. Exavieria took the jewelry and gun and stashed them in her apartment in west Mobile. Thereafter, on CCTV recordings, Echandza and Exavieria directed a 15-year-old child to find the gun and toss it from a balcony before agents could enter the apartment. When Echandza's teenage son tried to instruct the 15-year-old, her nephew, how to remove the clip from the loaded weapon, Echandza stated, "No, tell him don't do all that. Just drop it off. . . . [H]e ain't got time to do that. We ain't got time to coach him." Exavieria was intercepted admitting that she told her 15-year-old son to toss the gun from the balcony. The child stated that Exavieria texted him, "Get that gun in the shoe box take it out and drop it off the balcony. Now!" Agents found the loaded pistol near a softball field behind the apartment. Exavieria then admitted to agents that she had brought the gun to her apartment from McGee's and Echandza's house.

In 2017, Exavieria was convicted of a federal methamphetamine-trafficking offense in the Southern District of Alabama and received a time-served sentence. As a result, she is prohibited from possessing firearms. In December 2025, while Exavieria was on release pending trial in her case, the court revoked her bond after determining that she had repeatedly violated her conditions of release and lied to the court about it.

U.S. District Judge Terry F. Moorer sentenced Exavieria to serve 20 years in prison-the statutory maximum for her crimes. The court ordered Exavieria to serve a three-year term of supervised release upon her release from prison, during which time she will be subject to drug testing and treatment. The court did not impose a fine, but Judge Moorer ordered Exavieria to pay a total of $200 in special assessments.

The court will sentence McGee and Echandza in August 2026. Each faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

U.S. Attorney Sean P. Costello of the Southern District of Alabama made the announcement.

Homeland Security Investigations, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Mobile County Sheriff's Office, the Mobile Police Department, the Prichard Police Department, and the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency investigated the case. The United States Marshals Service and several local agencies in Houston, Texas substantially assisted the investigation.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Justin Roller and George May prosecuted the case on behalf of the United States.

This prosecution was part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad. Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of United States law enforcement towards identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations, which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders. In performing this work, the HSTF places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children. The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States. HSTF Mobile comprises agents and officers from, among others, Homeland Security Investigations, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, with the prosecution being led by the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Alabama.