sentenced<\/a> May 4 by Haines to 262 months in prison followed by 10 years of supervised release.<\/p>\nDiaz-Gibson also pleaded guilty in January to conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute fentanyl and methamphetamine.<\/p>\n
Officials said Rickenbach conspired to distribute and possessed with intent to distribute 40 grams or more of a mixture of fentanyl and 50 grams or more of a mixture of methamphetamine from June 2024 to August 2024 in the Western District of Pennsylvania.\u00a0 She also possessed with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of a mixture of methamphetamine and 40 grams or more of a mixture of fentanyl in August 2024.<\/p>\n
According to court documents:<\/p>\n
State police in March 2024 began investigating Diaz-Gibson, who at that time was on federal supervision for a drug conviction in the Southern District of West Virginia, to establish that he was a large-scale methamphetamine and fentanyl trafficker based in Berks.<\/p>\n
Investigators identified Rickenbach and two others as conspirators with Diaz-Gibson and each other to distribute drugs, including in the Western District of Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
A trooper stopped Diaz-Gibson in July 2024 in Bedford for having a suspended vehicle registration and noticed a strong odor of marijuana.<\/p>\n
Diaz-Gibson admitted having a blunt of marijuana, and he and Rickenbach, who was a passenger, consented to a search of the vehicle.<\/p>\n
Investigators found 334 grams of meth behind the glove box and 48 grams of fentanyl under the center console and arrested Diaz-Gibson. Three cellphones \u2014 including one believed to belong to Rickenbach \u2014 also were seized.<\/p>\n
While jailed, Diaz-Gibson directed two co-conspirators, including Rickenbach, to continue his drug trafficking.<\/p>\n
Diaz-Gibson arranged for Rickenbach to conduct drug deliveries, money pickups, and directed her to their drug supplier.<\/p>\n
On Aug. 24, 2024, law enforcement in Berks conducted surveillance on Rickenbach and a co-conspirator based on communications with Gibson-Diaz.<\/p>\n
Officers saw the co-conspirator access Gibson-Diaz\u2019s car, where they believed drugs were stashed.<\/p>\n
That same day, troopers stopped a vehicle driven by the co-conspirator in Bedford County. Rickenbach was a passenger in the vehicle.<\/p>\n
After they consenting to a search of the vehicle, troopers seized two plastic bags containing 444 grams of methamphetamine and 138 grams of fentanyl zip-tied to the vehicle\u2019s spare tire. They also seized marijuana, money and four cellphones.<\/p>\n
A Reading residence was searched and investigators seized more methamphetamine, fentanyl and money.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Reading woman is the second defendant to be sentenced to federal prison on charges in a drug-trafficking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,46,182,139,28,736,128,130,129,706],"class_list":["post-191142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-courts","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-top-stories-reg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191142","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=191142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}