SCRANTON — This is an official press release from the U.S. Department of Justice (USAO - Pennsylvania, Middle), published as received.
SCRANTON - The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced today that on March 2, 2018, United States District Judge Malachy E. Mannion sentenced Kassandra Martin, age 36, of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, to 60 months’ imprisonment, for conspiring to distribute heroin, crack cocaine, and fentanyl.
According to United States Attorney David J. Freed, Martin pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute controlled substances in Pennsylvania between approximately November 2016 through February 2017. Martin admitted to transporting controlled substances from New York to Pennsylvania, where she and other members of the conspiracy redistributed them. On February 8, 2017, Martin and two other individuals were arrested after a traffic stop that recovered 18 grams of heroin and 56 grams of crack cocaine from the vehicle’s occupants. Martin admitted that she trafficked in excess of 28 grams of crack cocaine and in excess of 100 grams of heroin (which is the equivalent of 4,000 potentially fatal doses of heroin).
Martin was charged in June 2017, with 14 other individuals. She is the first of the defendants to be sentenced.
The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Kingston Police Department, and by the Luzerne County Drug Task Force. Assistant U.S. Attorney Phillip J. Caraballo is prosecuting the case.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program that has been historically successful in bringing together all levels of law enforcement to reduce violent crime and make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has made turning the tide of rising violent crime in America a top priority. In October 2017, as part of a series of actions to address this crime trend, Attorney General Sessions announced the reinvigoration of PSN and directed all U.S. Attorney’s Offices to develop a district crime reduction strategy that incorporates the lessons learned since PSN launched in 2001.
This case also was brought as part of a district wide initiative to combat the nationwide epidemic regarding the use and distribution of heroin. Led by the United States Attorney’s Office, the Heroin Initiative targets heroin traffickers operating in the Middle District of Pennsylvania and is part of a coordinated effort among federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who commit heroin related offenses.
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