READING, Pa. – A former Reading resident was sentenced to a dozen years behind bars for trafficking illegal drugs into Connecticut.<\/p>\n
Israel Mendoza, also known as \u201cD-Nice\u201d and \u201cIsrael Mandosa,\u201d pleaded guilty in the fall of 2024 to conspiracy to distribute, and to possess with intent to distribute, heroin and cocaine.<\/p>\n
Mendoza was sentenced today to 84 months’ imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release.<\/p>\n
In 2018, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service\u2019s Narcotics and Bulk Cash Trafficking Task Force began investigating a Hartford, Connecticut area narcotics trafficking operation that involved the use of the U.S. Mail to ship parcels of drugs and drug proceeds.<\/p>\n
Investigators determined that Mendoza supplied Michael Copeland with large quantities of cocaine, and that Copeland, at Mendoza\u2019s direction, mailed parcels containing cash to individuals in California.<\/p>\n
The federal drug charges are not the only legal action Mendoza is facing.<\/p>\n
In August of 2023, investigators with The Reading Police Department announced a suspect, identified as Mendoza, had been arrested in a 1998 homicide.<\/p>\n
Authorities allege Mendoza was responsible for the 1998 fatal drive-by shooting of Michelle Lutz, who was shot and killed in the area Front and Elm streets.<\/p>\n
Mendoza was taken into custody in Jalisco, Mexico by the U.S. Marshalls Office and local law enforcement.<\/p>\n
At the time of the murder, investigators identified four suspects: Placido Rodriguez, Joshua Ramirez, Robert Radhames-Herrera and Mendoza.<\/p>\n
In 1998, Rodriguez and Ramirez were arrested and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit 3rd degree murder and both were sentenced to 10 to 20 years in state prison.<\/p>\n
Police say Radhames-Herrera remains at large.<\/p>\n
Mendoza is due back in court on the homicide charges on May 9th.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"READING, Pa. – A former Reading resident was sentenced to a dozen years behind bars for trafficking illegal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[72502,72506,72504,28,736,128,130,129,1306,72505,72503],"class_list":["post-160584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-drug-trafficking-network","tag-israel-mendoza","tag-michele-lutz","tag-pennsylvania","tag-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-reading-police-department","tag-u-s-marshalls-office","tag-u-s-postal-inspection-services-narcotics-and-bulk-cash-trafficking-task-force"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}