Monroe County Man Pleads Guilty To Crack Cocaine Trafficking

     The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that a 34-year-old Stroudsburg area man pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Court Judge Robert D. Mariani to distributing crack cocaine.

     According to United States Attorney Peter Smith, the defendant, Jose Hernandez-Tirado, admitted to distributing and possessing with intent to distribute crack in Monroe County during 2013.

     Hernandez-Tirado was charged in a Superseding Information filed in August 2014. The charge resulted from an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Pennsylvania State Police, and Berks County Detectives.

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

     Hernandez-Tirado faces a potential maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine. Sentencing was scheduled for November 2014.