WILKES-BARRE — This is an official press release from the U.S. Department of Justice (USAO - Pennsylvania, Middle), published as received.
WILKES-BARRE - The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Jace Bradley, age 58, of East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, entered a guilty plea on May 30, 2019, and was immediately sentenced by Senior U.S. District Court Judge A. Richard Caputo to 18 months’ imprisonment and four years supervised release for his role in a Monroe County-based cocaine trafficking conspiracy.
According to United States Attorney David J. Freed, Bradley pleaded guilty to conspiring with others to distribute between 500 grams and two kilograms of cocaine, in the Monroe County area between May and July 2015. Bradley was one of eleven individuals indicted by a grand jury in July 2015 and charged with conspiring to distribute powder cocaine, crack cocaine and/or heroin in the Monroe County area.
The case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Pocono Mountain Regional Police Department. Assistant United States Attorney Robert J. O’Hara prosecuted the case.
This case is 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. The Department of Justice 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 enforcement and the local community to develop effective, locally-based strategies to reduce crime.
This case was also 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 also 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.
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