Luzerne County Man Pleads Guilty To Drug Trafficking

WILKES-BARRE - The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Jesse Carey, age 33, formerly of Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, entered guilty pleas on January 6, 2019, before U.S. District Court Judge Malachy E. Mannion, to two counts of possession with intent to distribute cocaine and heroin stemming from separate incidents in Monroe and Luzerne Counties. 

According to United States Attorney David J. Freed, Carey was indicted in 2018 being in possession of approximately forty-seven grams of cocaine and twenty-nine individual packets of heroin for further distribution, a scale, and $9,777 in U.S. Currency on August 5, 2017, at the Mount Airy Casino in Monroe County.

On January 6, 2020, Carey entered a plea of guilty before Judge Mannion for possession with intent to distribute cocaine and heroin stemming from this incident. Carey was also charged with drug trafficking after a separate incident on January 12, 2017, in Plymouth Borough, Luzerne County, in which Carey was arrested and found in possession of fourteen grams of cocaine and approximately eighty individual doses of heroin for further distribution, $2,086 in U.S. currency, scales and drug packaging materials. Carey previously entered a plea of guilty on December 19, 2019, before Judge Mannion, to this charge.

The cases were investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Safe Streets Task Force, the Pennsylvania State Police, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, and the Plymouth Borough Police Department.  Assistant United States Attorney Robert J. O’Hara prosecuted the cases.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program that has been historically successful in bringing together all levels of law enforcement to reduce violent crime and make our neighborhoods safer for everyone.  The Department of Justice reinvigorated PSN in 2017 as part of the Department’s renewed focus on targeting violent criminals, directing all U.S. Attorney’s Offices to work in partnership with federal, state, local and tribal enforcement and the local community to develop effective, locally-based strategies to reduce crime.

This case was also brought as part of a district wide initiative to combat the nationwide epidemic regarding the use and distribution of heroin.  Led by the United States Attorney’s Office, the Heroin Initiative targets heroin traffickers operating in the Middle District of Pennsylvania and is part of a coordinated effort among federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who commit heroin related offenses.