Scranton Man Sentenced To 57 Months’ Imprisonment For Drug Trafficking Offense

SCRANTON – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Jean Hernandez, age 33, of Scranton, Pennsylvania, was sentenced today to 57 months’ imprisonment by United States District Court Judge Malachy E. Mannion for a drug trafficking offense.

According to United States Attorney Gerard M. Karam, Hernandez previously pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute over 500 grams of cocaine. As part of his guilty plea, Hernandez admitted to that in between April and May of 2021, he had knowingly received multiple mail packages each containing approximately two kilograms of cocaine at his Scranton residence, with the intent that the cocaine would later be distributed.

In addition to the fifty-seven-month imprisonment sentence, Judge Mannion ordered Hernandez to serve four years of supervised release upon his release from prison.

The matter was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the United States Postal Inspection Service, the Scranton Police Department, and the Lackawanna County District Attorney’s Office.  Assistant United States Attorney James Buchanan prosecuted the case.

This case is also 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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