HARRISBURG, Pa. — A Lancaster County man was sentenced to 22 years in prison for his role in a cocaine trafficking organization.
According to the United States Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, Dwayne Sherman, 49, from Lancaster, was sentenced Oct. 20 to 262 months in prison for drug trafficking and money laundering.
A jury convicted Sherman on all charges, including money laundering and drug trafficking conspiracy, according to United States Attorney Gerard M. Karam.
Sherman conspired with Mexican cartel members from 2012 to 2018 and was caught by the FBI in 2015-2016, in an undercover sting operation where he tried to send $550,000 in cash back to Mexico.
Sherman was also captured by police in Los Angeles smuggling two kilograms of cocaine, according to Karam.
Evidence was introduced at trial that Sherman regularly traveled to Mexico and developed a relationship with a Mexican drug trafficking group.
Money owed was smuggled across the border and then deposited into corrupt Casa de Cambio or money exchanges in Tijuana, Mexico.
The drugs were then smuggled back into the United States through a variety of means.
At sentencing, Judge Jennifer P. Wilson found that Sherman was responsible for approximately 46 kilograms of cocaine and with smuggling hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash.
She also made the finding that Sherman possessed guns as part of the drug trafficking activities.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Hawthorne (California) Police Department, the San Diego County Sherriff’s Office, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Pennsylvania State Police
