Plymouth Man Sentenced To Three Months Of Probation For Drug Trafficking

SCRANTON - The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Chad Eckrote, age 26, of Plymouth, Pennsylvania, received a probationary sentence of three years on March 19, 2019, by United States District Judge Malachy E. Mannion, for conspiring to distribute heroin, crack cocaine, and fentanyl.

According to United States Attorney David J. Freed, Dubaskas pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute controlled substances in Pennsylvania, from the summer of 2015 to the summer of 2016.  Eckrote admitted to working as a drug dealer and in the conspiracy, to transporting drugs from New York to Pennsylvania for redistribution, and to trafficking in excess of 22.4 grams of crack cocaine, fentanyl, and in excess of 80 grams of heroin, the latter of which is the equivalent of 3,200 potentially fatal doses of heroin.

Eckrote was charged in June 2017 with 14 other individuals.  All of his co-defendants have pleaded guilty, with 10 others having already been sentenced:

• Kassandra Martin of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to 60 months of imprisonment;
• Joshua Lenchick of Luzerne, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to 60 months of imprisonment;
• Kristyna Shotwell of Plymouth, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to 12 months and one day of imprisonment;
• Tanay Jones of Bronx, New York, was sentenced to a time served sentence of 19 days of imprisonment;
• William Waring of Bronx, New York, was sentenced to 60 months of imprisonment;
• John Maybank of Bronx, New York, was sentenced to 53 months of imprisonment;
• Siobhan Daniels, of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to 30 months of imprisonment;
• Luis Nevarez, of Bronx, New York, was sentenced to 60 months of imprisonment;
• Adonis Smith, of New London, Connecticut, was sentenced to 60 months of imprisonment; and
• Cara Dubaskas, of Plymouth, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to a time served sentence of 7 months.

The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Luzerne County Drug Task Force, and the Kingston Police Department.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Phillip J. Caraballo prosecuted the case.

This case was brought as 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 make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. The Department of Justice reinvigorated PSN in 2017 as part of the Department’s renewed focus on targeting violent criminals, directing all U.S. Attorney’s Offices to work in partnership with federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement and the local community to develop effective, locally-based strategies to reduce violent crime.

This case also was brought as part of a district wide initiative to combat the nationwide epidemic regarding the use and distribution of heroin.  Led by the United States Attorney’s Office, the Heroin Initiative targets heroin traffickers operating in the Middle District of Pennsylvania and is part of a coordinated effort among federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who commit heroin related offenses.

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