Man pleads guilty to heroin distribution

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Matthew Morales, 25, of Pocono Summit, pleaded guilty on Aug. 23, before U.S. District Court Senior Judge A. Richard Caputo to conspiracy to distribute heroin and crack cocaine.

According to United States Attorney David J. Freed, Morales admitted to participating in a conspiracy to distribute between 10 and 40 grams of heroin (which is equivalent to 400 to 1,600 individual doses of heroin), as well as between 28 and 112 grams of crack cocaine, in the Monroe County area between May and July 2015. Morales was one of 11 people indicted by a grand jury in July 2015, and charged with conspiring to distribute heroin, powder cocaine and crack cocaine in the Monroe County area.

Judge Caputo ordered a presentence report to be completed. Sentencing will be scheduled at a later date.

The investigation was conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Pocono Mountain Regional Police Department. Assistant United States Attorney Robert J. O’Hara is prosecuting the case.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. Attorney General Jeff Sessions 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 law enforcement and the local community to develop effective, locally based strategies to reduce violent crime.