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 that Ricardo Jimenez-Rodriguez, age 35, of Hazelton, Pennsylvania, was sentenced on April 22, 2022, to 70 months’ imprisonment by United States District Court Judge Robert D. Mariani for drug trafficking.
According to United States Attorney John C. Gurganus, Jimenez-Rodriguez previously pleaded guilty to possession with the intent to distribute over 5 kilograms of cocaine. On February 23, 2020, Jimenez-Rodriguez was intercepted while driving a tractor trailer in Conyngham, Pennsylvania. Investigators searched the cab of the truck and found a duffel bag containing what laboratory analysis later revealed to be approximately seven kilograms of cocaine and three kilograms of fentanyl.
The case was investigated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Pennsylvania State Police. Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean A. Camoni prosecuted the case.
This case was part of the joint federal, state, and local Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) Program, the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts. PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.
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