California Man Sentenced To 151 Months In Prison For Transporting Heroin To Monroe County

SCRANTON--The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that a 36-year-old California resident was sentenced to 151 months (12 years and seven months) in prison today by Senior U.S. District Court Judge Richard P. Conaboy in Scranton, for transporting heroin from California to Pennsylvania.

According to United States Attorney Peter Smith, the defendant, Francisco Martinez-Rubio, a citizen of Mexico who was living in Fresno, California at the time of his arrest, admitted to transporting 23 kilograms of heroin from California to the Mt. Pocono area of Monroe County in July 2014.

Martinez-Rubio was indicted by a federal grand jury in July 2014, as a result of an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Pennsylvania State Police. He pleaded guilty on September 8, 2015, to possession with intent to distribute more than one kilogram of heroin.

Judge Conaboy ordered Martinez-Rubio to serve five years on supervised release following his prison sentence. Martinez-Rubio also faces possible deportation after serving his prison sentence.

Previously, Judge Conaboy sentenced co-defendants Jose Rosario Huizar-Rios to 46 months in prison, Livier Cantor-Huizar to 41 months in prison, and Yolanda Barreto-Rincon to 57 months in prison. Martinez-Rubio recruited those co-defendants to help him transport the drugs.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Francis P. Sempa.

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