Bethlehem Man Sentenced to 57 Months in Prison for Drug Distribution, Firearms Offenses

PHILADELPHIA – United States Attorney David Metcalf announced that Matthew Romig, 38, of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was sentenced by United States District Court Judge Joseph F. Leeson Jr. last week to 57 months’ imprisonment, six years of supervised release, and a $900 special assessment for drug and gun offenses.

Romig was charged by indictment in October 2024 with five counts of distribution of a controlled substance, one count of possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance, one count of possession of a controlled substance within 1,000 feet of a school or playground, one count of possession of a firearm by a felon, and one count of possession of an unregistered machine gun. He pleaded guilty to all the charges against him in January.

As detailed in court filings and admitted to by the defendant, Romig repeatedly sold cocaine in Bethlehem and often did so within a few hundred feet of a community playground near his residence.

On July 26, 2024, law enforcement executed a search warrant at that residence, located on the 600 block of Hayes Street. In Romig’s vehicle, law enforcement recovered approximately $760 and more than three grams of cocaine. Inside Romig’s residence, authorities recovered approximately eight grams of cocaine, as well as a .45 caliber Military Armament Corp select-fire machine pistol model MAC-10, an extended magazine, and a suppressor. The MAC-10, which was unregistered, had an obliterated serial number and was switched to full-automatic mode.

In 2005, Romig was convicted of robbery in the Lehigh County Court of Common Pleas and sentenced to 14 to 36 months’ imprisonment for the offense, a second-grade felony. As a result, he was not permitted to legally possess a firearm.

“Matthew Romig endangered his community, selling cocaine and arming himself with a deadly weapon,” said U.S. Attorney Metcalf. “He wasn’t allowed to have any firearm, let alone a submachine gun set to full automatic, with extended magazine and suppressor. It’s critical to get dangerous drugs off the street and illegal guns out of criminals’ hands, to crack down on violent crime and make our neighborhoods safer.”

“Matthew Romig was selling drugs near a playground and armed with a fully automatic MAC-10 .45 submachine gun,” said Eric DeGree, Special Agent in Charge of the ATF’s Philadelphia Field Division. “This criminal is going to federal prison, where he will no longer endanger this community. Together with our state and local partners, and the United States Attorney’s Office, we continue to make Pennsylvania’s communities safer from such dangerous criminals.”

The case was investigated by the ATF, the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office, and the Bethlehem Police Department as part of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) program and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Rebecca Kulik and Robert Schopf.