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Philly Man Sent To Fed Pen After DEA Smashes Cali-To-NJ Heroin, Fentanyl Network

A Philadelphia man must spend a plea-bargained 33 months in federal prison for his role in a bi-coastal drug network that was smashed when the DEA seized more than 40 pounds of heroin and fentanyl at a Hunterdon County rest stop.

DEA

DEA

Photo Credit: dea.gov

Denny Diaz, 30, struck a deal with the government in exchange for leniency when he admitted earlier that he’d collected six kilos of fentanyl from a California man at the service area in Bloomsbury in March 2019.

U.S. District Judge Peter G. Sheridan sentenced Diaz in Trenton on Tuesday to three years of supervised release following his prison term. 

Diaz must serve just about all of the 33 months because there’s no parole in the federal prison system.

Co-defendant Luis Aponte, 49, of Riverside, California, drove a tractor-trailer to a rest stop in Bloomsbury, where he gave Diaz the fentanyl, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said.

Both were arrested when investigators found two more kilos of fentanyl and 11 kilos of heroin in the rig at the rest stop, Carpenito said.

Aponte also previously pleaded guilty to his role in the conspiracy and is scheduled to be sentenced July 6.

Carpenito credited special agents of the DEA’s New York Drug Enforcement Task Force with the investigation leading to the guilty pleas, secured by Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Macurdy of his Criminal Division in Newark.

The task force is comprised of agents and officers of the DEA, NYPD and New York State Police.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Macurdy of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Newark.

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