Michael Rinaldi, Drug Trafficking, Pennsylvania 2021

A Wilkes-Barre man has been sentenced to 235 months’ imprisonment for his role in a massive drug trafficking operation in northeastern Pennsylvania.

Michael Rinaldi, 44, of Wilkes-Barre, was convicted in August 2020 after a jury trial of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute narcotics between November 2017 and August 2018.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean A. Camoni is prosecuting the case.

Rinaldi was found to be responsible for 6 kilograms of cocaine, 1 kilogram of cocaine base, or ‘crack,’ 15 grams of heroin, and 48 pounds of marijuana.

This was Rinaldi’s ninth adult criminal conviction, and he was most recently released in October 2017 from a 19-year term of imprisonment imposed after a 1998 arrest for drug trafficking and firearms violations.

Two additional co-defendants, Duwayne Brown and Andrew Henry, have pleaded guilty to drug trafficking conspiracy and are awaiting sentencing.

The case is being prosecuted as part of the joint federal, state, and local Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) Program, which is aimed at reducing violent crime in the community.

The Heroin Initiative, led by the United States Attorney’s Office, 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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