Luzerne County Woman Sentenced To 30 Months’ Imprisonment For Fentanyl Trafficking

SCRANTON - The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced today that Candacelee Ellis, age 37, of Plymouth, Pennsylvania, was sentenced on September 22, 2023, by U.S. District Court Judge Robert D. Mariani, to 30 months’ imprisonment on the charge of conspiracy to distribute fentanyl.

According to United States Attorney Gerard M. Karam, Ellis previously pleaded guilty and admitted to conspiring with other individuals to distribute between 160 grams and 280 grams of fentanyl in the Luzerne County area between 2019 and 2020.

Previously, co-defendant Eric Hill, age 34, also of Plymouth, Pennsylvania, was sentenced by Judge Mariani to serve 10 years’ imprisonment for conspiring to distribute between 400 grams and 1.2 kilograms of fentanyl in the Luzerne County area. 

The charges against the defendants resulted from an investigation conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), the Kingston Police Department, the Luzerne County Drug Task Force, and the Pennsylvania State Police.  Assistant United States Attorney Robert J. O’Hara prosecuted the case.

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 gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.        

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