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November 12, 2009

Heroin ring member from W-B gets prison

Derek Reich, 21, is the last of five defendants in the case to be sentenced.

WILKES-BARRE – A city man was sentenced Tuesday to 3 1/2 to seven years in state prison for his participation in a heroin ring in which 240 packets of heroin were found stamped with “OBAMA 09.”

Luzerne County Court Judge Michael Toole sentenced Derek Reich, 21, of Academy Street, on charges of corrupt organization, criminal conspiracy, possession with intent to deliver and delivery of a controlled substance. Reich pleaded guilty to the charges in September.

Investigators said they found the heroin with the presidential campaign-type stamp inside a Wilkes-Barre home in October 2008.

The raid of the 302 Hazle Ave. home was part of efforts to shut down a heroin distribution ring that operated in the city, Edwardsville and Kingston.

The bust netted five people, including Reich.

Police said Reich used the residence to distribute the heroin packets, which investigators found later in the basement.

The heroin ring moved to Wilkes-Barre in late September 2008 when Jennifer Catanzariti leased an Oakwood Lane residence. She was given four packets of heroin a day by Christopher Allen that allowed him to use her residence to sell heroin, investigators said.

Allen told authorities, according to arrest records, that he sold 40 bricks of heroin last August and September.

Others arrested in the ring, Jessica Lynn Deshazo and Sirelle Buscemi, of Wilkes-Barre, used an apartment on Ross Street to sell heroin, but then moved the operation to the Oakwood Lane home.

Allen, 26, who pleaded guilty to similar charges in June, was sentenced to two to four years in state prison in August; Catanzariti, 25, pleaded guilty in April, and was sentenced in May to nine to 18 months in state prison, as well as two years probation; Buscemi, 22, pleaded guilty in May and was sentenced in August to 22 to 44 months in state prison.

Deshazo, 32, pleaded guilty in June and was sentenced to 60 to 120 months in state prison in August. Deshazo is currently appealing her sentence to the Superior Court.






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