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 November 30, 2018, United States District Court Judge Malachy E. Mannion sentenced Evan Watkins, age 30, of Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, to 10 years’ imprisonment on drug trafficking charges.
According to United States Attorney David J. Freed, Watkins pled guilty to distributing and possessing with the intent to distribute over 100 grams of heroin between June 2015 and March 2017, in Monroe County, Pennsylvania. Watkins admitted that he was responsible for the trafficking of between 100 and 400 grams of heroin over a nearly two-year span. One hundred grams of heroin is the equivalent of approximately 4,000 individual doses of heroin.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Stroud Area Regional Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean A. Camoni is prosecuting the case.
This case 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.
This prosecution is part of an extensive investigation by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF). OCDETF is a joint federal, state, and local cooperative approach to combat drug trafficking and is the nation’s primary tool for disrupting and dismantling major drug trafficking organizations, targeting national and regional level drug trafficking organizations and coordinating the necessary law enforcement entities and resources to disrupt or dismantle the targeted criminal organization and seize their assets.
This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. Attorney General Jeff Sessions reinvigorated PSN in 2017 as part of the Department’s renewed focus on targeting violent criminals, directing all U.S. Attorney’s Offices to work in partnership with federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement and the local community to develop effective, locally-based strategies to reduce violent crime.
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