SCRANTON- The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Esgardo Carrillo, age 29, of Stanton, California, was sentenced today by United States District Court Judge Malachy E. Mannion to 45 months’ imprisonment and a 2-year term of supervised release, for his participation in a drug trafficking organization that moved large quantities of heroin, fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine from California to various major Midwest and East Coast cities.
According to United States Attorney Gerard M. Karam, from at least mid-2018 until April of 2019, Carrillo coordinated a group of couriers, who packaged substantial quantities of illegal drugs in suitcases and transported them via commercial flights from West Coast locations to cities such as New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Milwaukee. Carrillo either himself took or coordinated at least 21 such trips during the conspiracy period. Upon arriving at their locations, Carrillo and the other couriers would pass on the illegal drugs to co-conspirators for local distribution.
The case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffery St John prosecuted the case.
This case was 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.
The case was brought as part of a district wide initiative to combat the nationwide epidemic regarding the use and distribution of heroin. Led by the United States Attorney’s Office, the Heroin Initiative targets heroin traffickers operating in the Middle District of Pennsylvania and is part of a coordinated effort among federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who commit heroin related offenses.
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