Lancaster County Man Sentenced To 22 Years In Prison For Trafficking Cocaine With A Mexican Drug Trafficking Organization

HARRISBURG - The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Dwayne Sherman, age 49, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was sentenced on October 20, 2023, to 262 months’ imprisonment by United States District Court Judge Jennifer P. Wilson for drug trafficking and money laundering.

According to United States Attorney Gerard M. Karam, in September 2022, a jury convicted Sherman on all charges, including money laundering and drug trafficking conspiracy. 

Sherman conspired with Mexican cartel members from 2012 to 2018, and was caught by the FBI in 2015-2016, in an undercover sting operation where Sherman tried to send $550,000 in cash back to Mexico.  Sherman was also captured by police in Los Angeles, California smuggling two kilograms of cocaine.  Evidence was introduced at trial that Sherman regularly travelled to Mexico and developed a relationship with a Mexican drug trafficking group.  Money owed was smuggled across the border and then deposited into corrupt Casa de Cambio or money exchanges in Tijuana, Mexico. The drugs were then smuggled back into the United States through a variety of means.  

At sentencing, Judge Wilson found that Sherman was responsible for approximately 46 kilograms of cocaine, and with smuggling hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash.  She also made the finding that Sherman possessed guns as part of the drug trafficking activities.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Hawthorne (California) Police Department, the San Diego County Sherriff’s Office, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Pennsylvania State Police. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael A. Consiglio and Carlo Marchioli prosecuted the case.

This effort is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach. Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at https://www.justice.gov/OCDETF.

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