SCRANTON – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Rudolph Ford, age 33, formerly of Olyphant, Lackawanna County, was sentenced on April 7, 2022, by U.S. District Court Judge Robert D. Mariani to seven years’ imprisonment for his role in a methamphetamine and heroin trafficking conspiracy.
According to United States Attorney John C. Gurganus, Ford previously pleaded guilty and admitted to participating in a conspiracy to distribute between 350 and 500 grams of crystal methamphetamine and 20 to 40 grams of heroin in the Lackawanna County area in 2018. Ford was one of five individuals indicted by a grand jury in December 2018 for methamphetamine trafficking in Luzerne, Lackawanna and Schuylkill Counties
The investigation was conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), the Pennsylvania State Police, the Kingston Police Department, the Luzerne County Drug Task Force, and the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General. Assistant United States Attorney Robert J. O’Hara prosecuted the case.
Previously, Amanda Boyle, age 37, of Sweet Valley, Luzerne County, was sentenced by Judge Mariani to nine years in prison for her role in this same drug trafficking conspiracy.
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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