New Jersey Heroin/Fentanyl Supplier Sentenced to 12 Years in Prison

PITTSBURGH, PA - A former New Jersey resident has been sentenced in federal court to 12 years of imprisonment followed by eight years of supervised release on his conviction for violating the federal narcotics laws, United States Attorney Cindy K. Chung announced today.

Senior United States District Judge Joy Flowers Conti imposed the sentence on Herbert Felder, 53, formerly of East Orange, New Jersey. In December 2019, Felder pled guilty to the one-count Indictment charging him with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 400 grams or more of fentanyl and 100 grams or more of heroin from in and around December 2018 and continuing to May 1, 2019, in the Western District of Pennsylvania and elsewhere.

According to information presented to the Court, Felder was identified as source of supply of over 600 “bricks” – more than 31,000 individual dosage units – of heroin/fentanyl mixtures, which he provided to co-conspirators for redistribution in the Western District of Pennsylvania. Agents with the Pennsylvania State Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation surveilled Felder and his co-conspirators in May 2019 at a hotel in Hershey, Pennsylvania. In connection with his guilty plea, Felder admitted to distributing the “bricks” of heroin and fentanyl to co-conspirators while in Hershey, Pennsylvania, at that time. The Court was advised that law enforcement later seized the bricks of heroin/fentanyl pursuant to search warrants, thereby preventing the distribution of this large quantity of narcotics in the Western District of Pennsylvania. In connection with his plea, Felder admitted to knowing that those substances were being trafficked to the Western District of Pennsylvania for further distribution.

Felder has been in the custody of the United States Marshals since his arrest in this matter in August 2019.

Assistant United States Attorney Jerome A. Moschetta prosecuted this case on behalf of the government.

United States Attorney Chung commended the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Pennsylvania State Police Drug Law Enforcement Division for the investigation leading to the successful prosecution of Felder.