HARRISBURG, Pa. — Three York men have been sentenced to 120 months in prison for trafficking cocaine.
The United States Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Luis Manuel Quesada Rodriguez, 32, Alex Rivera Ramos, 30 and Pedro Diaz, 27, were each sentenced by United States District Court Judge Jennifer P. Wilson.
According to U.S. Attorney Gerard M. Karam, between December 2015 and March 2020, the defendants coordinated and received parcels containing kilogram quantities of cocaine sent from Puerto Rico through the mail. The men reportedly then distributed the cocaine in and around York.
Each of the three defendants, along with a fourth co-defendant, Carlos Joel Nieves Ortega, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute between five and 15 kilograms of cocaine hydrochloride.
According to the Department of Justice, the government disrupted the organization's cocaine shipments and seized 7.5 kilograms of cocaine along with $16,895 in drug money.
Ortega, 37, also from York, was previously sentenced to 120 months in prison for his involvement in the cocaine trafficking conspiracy. Another co-defendant, Jose Colon Declet, 36, was sentenced to 30 months in prison.
This prosecution is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) investigation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.
This case is also part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone.
