SCRANTON, PA — Luis Gonzalez, a 28-year-old from El Paso, Texas, has been sentenced to a decade in prison. U.S. District Court Judge Robert D. Mariani handed down the sentence on March 12, 2024, for Gonzalez’s charge of possessing more than five kilograms of cocaine with the intention to distribute.
United States Attorney Gerard M. Karam revealed that Gonzalez had previously admitted guilt and confessed to possessing between 15 and 50 kilograms of cocaine. His plan was to distribute this significant amount of drugs in the Lackawanna County area in September 2022.
Gonzalez wasn’t acting alone. He and another man, Jose Torres, also 27 and from El Paso, were indicted by a grand jury in Scranton for cocaine trafficking in October 2022. The charges originated from an incident on September 29, 2022, when Pennsylvania State Police pulled over a vehicle in Lackawanna County. Gonzalez and Torres were found inside the vehicle.
Upon searching the vehicle, law enforcement officers discovered sixteen individually wrapped packages of cocaine. The street value of this haul is estimated to be around $500,000.
Torres, the co-defendant in this case, is still awaiting his sentencing.
The successful investigation that led to these charges was conducted by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Pennsylvania State Police, and the Scranton Police Department. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Robert J. O’Hara.
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