Luzerne County Man Sentenced To 57 Months’ Imprisonment For Methamphetamine Trafficking

F.P. Report

SCRANTON: The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Richard Notarfrancesco, age 30, formerly of Hazleton, Pennsylvania, was sentenced on January 13, 2022, to 57 months’ imprisonment by United States District Court Judge Malachy E. Mannion after pleading guilty to methamphetamine trafficking.

According to United States Attorney John C. Gurganus, Notarfrancesco possessed with intent to distribute between 500 grams and 1.5 kilograms of methamphetamine in the Hazleton area on September 14, 2019. 

The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. Postal Inspect

ion Service, the Pennsylvania State Police and the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office as part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) Operation. 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 matter was prosecuted as part of the Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) Program, the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts.  PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime.  Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them.  As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jenny P. Roberts.