WILLIAMSPORT – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that on February 9, 2022, James Burrous, age 47, of Tioga County, Pennsylvania, was sentenced by Chief U.S. District Court Judge Matthew W. Brann to 51 months’ imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release for his role in a marijuana grow operation.
According to United States Attorney John C. Gurganus, Burrous possessed more than 100 marijuana plants that he intended to distribute. When a search warrant was executed on Burrous’s home in February of 2017, other controlled substances such as Dimethyltryptamine (“DMT”) and lysergic acid diethylamide (“LSD”) were also recovered.
Co-defendant, Zack Boyer, age 37, of Tioga County, was previously sentenced to 57 months’ imprisonment for his role in conspiring with Burrous to manufacture and distribute controlled substances.
The case was investigated by the Pennsylvania State Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Alisan V. Martin prosecuted the case.
This case was also 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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