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SCRANTON — A Wilkes-Barre man has been sentenced to over five years in prison for fentanyl trafficking, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced Wednesday.
Casey Read, 40, was sentenced on Dec. 19 by U.S. District Court Judge Robert D. Mariani, on the charge of conspiracy to distribute more than 40 grams of fentanyl, a press release read.
According to U.S. Attorney Gerard M. Karam, Read previously pleaded guilty and admitted to obtaining between 40 grams and 160 grams of fentanyl from co-conspirators Eric Hill, 34, of Plymouth, and Candacelee Ellis, 37, also of Plymouth, which Read then distributed in the Luzerne County area between 2019 and 2020.
Hill, Ellis and Read were indicted by a grand jury in August 2020 for fentanyl trafficking.
According to the press release, Judge Mariani previously sentenced Hill to serve ten years in prison and Ellis to serve 30 months in prison for conspiring to distribute fentanyl in the Luzerne County area.
The charge against the defendants resulted from an investigation conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), the Kingston Police Department, the Luzerne County Drug Task Force, and the Pennsylvania State Police.