Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

SCRANTON - The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced today that on June 26, 2018, United States District Judge Malachy E. Mannion sentenced Kristyna Shotwell, age 30, of Plymouth, Pennsylvania, to one year and one day imprisonment for conspiring to distribute heroin, crack cocaine, and fentanyl.

According to United States Attorney David J. Freed, Shotwell pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute controlled substances in Pennsylvania between approximately July 2015 through February 2017. Shotwell admitted to serving as a courier for other members of the conspiracy, allowing members of the conspiracy to use her resident to package and sell narcotics, and selling heroin herself. Shotwell admitted that she trafficked in excess of 22.4 grams of crack cocaine and in excess of 80 grams of heroin, the latter of which is the equivalent of 3,200 potentially fatal doses of heroin.

Shotwell was charged in June 2017 with 14 other individuals. All of her co-defendants have pleaded guilty, with two others having already been sentenced:

• Kassandra Martin of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to 60 months’ imprisonment; and

• Joshua Lenchick of Luzerne, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to 60 months’ 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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