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Alfonso Sanchez, 40, was in the county correctional facility awaiting a retrial in a 2007 double homicide when he conspired with at least 10 others to smuggle suboxone from May 2020 to December 2020, the Bucks County District Attorney's Office said.
An investigation by BCCF investigators and the Bucks County Detectives Drug Strike Force discovered that Sanchez was buying the suboxone strips for a couple of dollars each on the outside and selling them to inmates for approximately $100 to $200 a strip, they said.
Sanchez, a high-ranking member of the Latin Kings gang, tried having the strips sent to him or other inmates meant for him through mailed packages, Deputy District Attorney Mary Kate Kohler said. Some were apparently disguised as legal mail coming from the Federal Defender's Office and others were inside the bindings of books.
When the mail scheme failed, Sanchez tried to have people with active warrants smuggle suboxone strips inside their bodies and then turn themselves in to the jail or secrete them inside Bibles, again through the mail, Kohler said.
While investigators were able to find some of the drugs before they entered the jail, they estimated that conservatively between 100 and 150 suboxone strips made it into the jail, she said.
Inmates paid for the drugs through various means such as mobile payment apps, a change.org fund, and putting money directly on his books, Kohler said.
BCCF Director David Kratz testified that Sanchez had six misconducts against him while he was in jail awaiting his retrial for the October 2007 killings of Lisa Marie Diaz, 27, and Mendez Thomas Jr., 22, in Warminster, the DA's office said.
In 2008, Sanchez was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to death, prosecutors said. He later appealed his conviction and the District Attorney’s Office agreed to a retrial in 2017. In addition to the retrial, Sanchez is also awaiting trial on charges he plotted to have a key witness in the double homicide case killed.
In the drug ring case, Sanchez pleaded guilty to corrupt organizations, delivery of a controlled substance, conspiracy to deliver a controlled substance, dealing in proceeds of unlawful activities, conspiracy to dealing in proceeds of unlawful activities, possession of contraband, conspiracy to possession of contraband, criminal use of a communication facility and conspiracy to criminal use of a communication facility.
He was also sentenced to 10 years of state probation.
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