Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

SCRANTON – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that on June 11, 2019, David Alzugaray-Lugones, age 50, a Cuban refugee from Weatherly, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to 27 months’ imprisonment and three years of supervised release, by United States District Court Judge Malachy E. Mannion, for drug trafficking offenses.

According to United States Attorney David J. Freed, Alzugaray-Lugones was convicted following a 13-day jury trial of conspiring to distribute 15 grams of heroin from June 2, 2015 and June 8, 2015, and for distributing five grams of heroin on June 8, 2015. Alzugaray-Lugones also attempted to obstruct justice by authoring a letter sent to law enforcement, in which he claimed responsibility for C-4 explosives crimes committed by one of his co-conspirators.

Alzugaray-Lugones’s codefendants, Roberto Torner and Liza Robles, also were convicted at trial of various heroin trafficking, firearms, and explosives charges. Torner and Robles both are awaiting sentencing.

The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the Weatherly Police Department, the Luzerne County Drug Task Force, the Pennsylvania State Police, and other federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies. Assistant United States Attorneys Phillip Caraballo and Todd Hinkley prosecuted the case.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), 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. 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 law enforcement and the local community to develop effective, locally-based strategies to reduce violent crime.

The case was 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.

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