Third California Resident Sentenced To Prison For Helping To Transport Heroin Across The Country

SCRANTON--The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that a 27-year-old California resident was sentenced to 57 months in prison today by Senior U.S. District Court Judge Richard P. Conaboy in Scranton, for possessing with intent to distribute more than one kilogram of heroin.

According to United States Attorney Peter Smith, the defendant, Yolanda Barreto-Rincon, a Mexican national who resided in Fresno, California at the time of the offense, previously admitted to transporting heroin from California to the Mt. Pocono area of Monroe County in July 2014.

Barreto-Rincon 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.

Judge Conaboy ordered Barreto-Rincon to serve two years on supervised release following her prison sentence. Barreto-Rincon also faces possible deportation.

Previously, Judge Conaboy sentenced co-defendants Jose Rosario Huizar-Rios to 46 months in prison and Livier Cantor-Huizar to 41 months in prison. One other defendant has entered a guilty plea in the case and is awaiting sentencing.

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

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