PORTLAND — Federal agents called in a backhoe to excavate the septic tank of a Poland home where they found drugs a Massachusetts man was suspected of having flushed down the toilet, investigators said.

Claudio Miguel “Pablo” Nin German, 30, of Lawrence, Massachusetts, appeared Wednesday in U.S. District Court. With the aid of a Spanish interpreter, he pleaded not guilty to a felony charge of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, a crime punishable by 10 years to life in prison and a fine of up to $10 million.

Nin German also pleaded not guilty to possession with intent to distribute controlled substances.

If convicted, he could be punished by up to 20 years in prison and a maximum fine of $1 million.

He is being held without bail pending trial, tentatively scheduled for October.

Nin German was apparently staying at a home on Bragdon Hill Road in Poland on May 9 when federal agents executed a search warrant there after having investigated the place for drug activity, according to an affidavit written by Jason Leadbetter, a task force officer at the FBI.

Four people were in the home, he wrote. Two left the home when authorities announced their presence.

Nin German came out about five minutes later, Leadbetter wrote.

In one room, agents found a gun, cash wrapped in plastic and various identification cards for Nin German, including those issued by authorities in Massachusetts and the Dominican Republic, Leadbetter wrote.

In a bathroom, agents discovered the “presence of narcotics, including paraphernalia and tin foil strips, which I know to be used to package narcotics,” Leadbetter wrote. “Foil was discovered in the bathroom and in the toilet, leading me to believe that narcotics were flushed down the toilet by the targets once officers announced their presence.”

One of the four people from the home spoke with agents, saying that Nin German supplied the source with drugs that the the source would then sell to area drug users.

The source said Nin German had arrived at the Poland home a day earlier and routinely brought at least one kilogram of narcotics with him when he came to Maine from Massachusetts and stayed at the home.

The source told agents that he “observed Nin German dash out of the room in which he was staying and into the bathroom” when agents announced their presence at the home.

Leadbetter wrote that he and other agents suspected Nin German had flushed drugs down the toilet.

The FBI contacted Poland Public Works, which went to the home with a backhoe loader, which it used to excavate the septic tank.

When the tank was opened, agents could see “several packets, which appeared to contain narcotics at the base of the input baffle where fresh waste would be located,” Leadbetter wrote.

“Another package was successfully flushed out of the pipe that fed directly into the tank. This package appeared to have been opened, although residue believed to be narcotics was still visible inside the package,” he wrote.

Agents recovered four packages, believed to be narcotics, from the septic tank, Leadbetter wrote.

The packages were later analyzed and field tested, revealing a total of 20.8 grams of a substance that field tested presumptively positive for fentanyl, and 3.6 grams of a substance that field tested presumptively positive for crack cocaine, he wrote.

Agents recovered a .40-caliber handgun from the room in which Nin German was staying, Leadbetter wrote.

A search of Nin German’s vehicles turned up two long guns: a Remington shotgun and a Highpoint semiautomatic 9 mm rifle, Leadbetter wrote.

The agents’ source allowed them to search the source’s cellphone, which revealed texting with Nin German, who said he would sell 50 grams of narcotics to a user, Leadbetter wrote.

Nin German had instructed the source how to handle the transaction, including the need to count the money before handing over the drugs.