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Press Release

Wilkes-Barre Man Sentenced to 180 Months' Imprisonment for Fentanyl Trafficking

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Middle District of Pennsylvania

SCRANTON- The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced today that Kevin Jones, aka “Hat,” age 40, formerly of Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, was sentenced on October 23, 2024, by United States District Court Judge Malachy E. Mannion, to 180 months’ imprisonment on the charge of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute fentanyl.

According to United States Attorney Gerard M. Karam, Jones was found guilty of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute more than 400 grams of fentanyl after a four-day jury trial before Judge Mannion in June 2024. Jones was one of fifteen individuals indicted in February 2023 for conspiring to distribute fentanyl in Northeastern Pennsylvania and elsewhere.  Jones and his co-conspirators obtained pills containing fentanyl via the mail from co-conspirators in Arizona.  Jones and his co-conspirators then distributed the pills in Wilkes-Barre, Scranton, and other locations in Northeastern Pennsylvania, as well as other states.

At trial, the Government presented testimony from six of Jones’s co-conspirators.  Investigators from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Wilkes-Barre Police Department, and the United States Postal Inspection Service also testified. Assistant United States Attorneys Robert J. O’Hara and Gerard T. Donahue prosecuted the case.

To date, thirteen co-defendants have pleaded guilty.  Some are still awaiting sentencing.

This case was prosecuted as part of the joint federal, state, and local Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) Program, the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts.  PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime.  Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them.  As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.

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Updated October 24, 2024

Topic
Project Safe Neighborhoods