A federal jury finds a Harrisburg man guilty of conspiracy to traffic drugs and trafficking drugs. The jury handed down the verdict today after a week long trial of Maurice Henderson, 33, who also has a New York address.
Henderson was convicted on charges of criminal conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute five kilograms and more of cocaine and 280 grams or more of crack cocaine. The jury found Henderson not guilty of possessing a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking.
Evidence presented during trial established that Henderson sold crack cocaine to an individual working with the Dauphin County Drug Task Force twice and also sold crack cocaine to an undercover police officer on two occasions. Witnesses testified that over a two-year period, Henderson and his co-conspirators made frequent trips from Harrisburg to a neighborhood in New York to purchase multiple kilogram quantities of cocaine hydrochloride, using rental cars and drivers to make the trips. Upon their return to Harrisburg, members of the conspiracy cooked the bulk of the cocaine hydrochloride into “crack” cocaine, weighed it, packaged it into smaller quantities and distributed to drug dealers in the Harrisburg area.
Co-conspirators Juval Green, 34, Robert Reynoso, 35, Derrice Sassaman, 39, and Annalyn Black, 26, all previously pleaded guilty to a drug trafficking conspiracy and are awaiting sentencing. Prior to jury selection in Henderson’s case, the government filed a notice stating that because Henderson has at least two prior felony drug convictions, he is subject a mandatory 20 years’ imprisonment.
The investigation that led to Henderson’s arrest and conviction was part of a larger investigation targeting crack cocaine dealing in the 14th and Swatara Street area in Harrisburg