Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney's Office
Middle District of Pennsylvania
For Immediate Release
Monday, July 30, 2018
New York Man Sentenced to 53 Months' Imprisonment for Drug Trafficking
SCRANTON - The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced today that on July 27, 2018, United States District Court Judge Malachy E. Mannion sentenced John Maybank, age 25, of Bronx, New York, to 53 months’ imprisonment and three years of supervised release for conspiring to distribute heroin, crack cocaine, and fentanyl.
According to United States Attorney David J. Freed, Maybank pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute controlled substances in Pennsylvania between approximately January 2016 through February 2017. Maybank admitted to working as a drug dealer in the conspiracy, and to transporting narcotics from New York to Pennsylvania. Maybank trafficked in excess of 280 grams of crack cocaine and 600 grams of heroin, the latter of which is the equivalent of approximately 24,000 potentially fatal doses of heroin.
Maybank was charged in June 2017 with 14 other individuals. All of his co-defendants have pleaded guilty, with five others having already been sentenced:
- Kassandra Martin of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to 60 months of imprisonment;
- Joshua Lenchick of Luzerne, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to 60 months of imprisonment;
- Kristyna Shotwell of Plymouth, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to 12 months and one day of imprisonment;
- Tanay Jones of Bronx, New York, was sentenced to a time served sentence of approximately one month of imprisonment; and
- William Waring of Bronx, New York, was sentenced to 60 months of imprisonment.
The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Kingston Police Department, and by the Luzerne County Drug Task Force. Assistant U.S. Attorney Phillip J. Caraballo 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. 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.
This case also 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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