U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania
Six months home confinement and eighteen months probation in a federal felony drug case.
Our client was in federal court because a federal grand jury sitting in Scranton, PA had returned a two-count Indictment against him and 13 other persons alleging a felony conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute in excess of 5 kilograms of cocaine.
We argued aggressively, and we successfully separated our client from the other conspirators, and we negotiated a one-count Superseding Information alleging our client had distributed and possessed with intent to distribute between 25 and 50 grams of cocaine. Some of the co-conspirators ultimately received sentences of 60 months or more.
This case arose from a joint investigation conducted by the Scranton Police Department and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) into a multi-member felony conspiracy to import and distribute powder cocaine into the area of Lackawanna County, PA. Agents utilized a number of investigative techniques - cooperative confidential sources, telephone subscription and call records, undercover surveillance, controlled buys, the internet and various other investigative efforts, ultimately leading to court-authorized telephone interceptions of several cell phones of leading members of the conspiracy. The conspiracy members traveled back and forth from Scranton to metropolitan New York regularly to obtain large quantities of cocaine.
Our client had a prior felony conviction for sale of a controlled substance for which he did a year in New York state prison, a prior felony conviction for attempted sale of a controlled substance for which he did time, and also a prior misdemeanor conviction for possession of controlled substance in Lackawanna County, PA. As such, he had a serious prior-record score.
In this case, our client faced a maximum imprisonment of 20 years, a maximum supervised release of 3 years and a maximum fine of $1,000,000.00.
We fought aggressively for our client and we got him six months home confinement with probation. No prison; no fine.
We often handle federal felony drug cases with discretion, and with success.