Philadelphia Heroin Supplier Sentenced to 10 Years for Drug Trafficking

PHILADELPHIA – United States Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero announced that Roberto DeJesus Negrin, 35, of Philadelphia, PA, was sentenced to ten years in prison and five years of supervised release by United States District Court Judge Nitza I. Quinones-Alejandro for multiple narcotics offenses stemming from his role as a drug trafficker and a leading supplier of heroin in one of the most drug-laden neighborhoods in Philadelphia.

In January 2022, the defendant pleaded guilty to an Indictment charging him with conspiracy to distribute heroin, and two counts of possession with intent to distribute heroin. In pleading guilty, the defendant acknowledged that he coordinated shipments of heroin into Philadelphia and arranged for it to be packaged into street-level, sale-ready quantities at two locations which he obtained for the purpose of operating this bagging operation. During much of 2018, the defendant was the main heroin supplier to a drug trafficking organization that controlled an open-air drug market in the Kensington section of the city. In November 2018, when law enforcement executed search warrants at the two locations controlled by the defendant, they recovered over two kilograms of heroin in each place and other items consistent with drug trafficking.

“Drug use and the violence that surrounds it are – and have been – an epidemic in Philadelphia, and the federal government is aggressively prosecuting those who seek to profit from it,” said U.S. Attorney Romero. “This defendant played a key role in the supply chain of heroin distribution, for which he will now spend a decade in prison. We want to thank our law enforcement partners in this case, the FBI and the Philadelphia Police Department, for their hard work and dedication.”

The case was investigated by Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Philadelphia Police Department, and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Robert E. Eckert and Timothy M. Stengel.