The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that a 41-year-old Effort man was sentenced today to a total of 181 months in prison for his role in a heroin trafficking conspiracy and for violating conditions of his supervised release.

According to United States Attorney Peter Smith, the defendant, Kerion Johnson, previously pleaded guilty to committing the crime between November 2013 and April 22, 2014 in Monroe County. Johnson also admitted to committing the crime while he was on supervised release from an earlier federal drug conviction.

In today’s first proceeding, Senior U.S. District Court Judge Richard P. Conaboy imposed a 151-month prison sentence on Johnson for the conspiracy offense. A short time later, Senior U.S. District Court Judge James M. Munley imposed a 30-month sentence on Johnson for violating the conditions of supervised release, and ordered the 30-month sentence to run consecutive to the 151-month sentence.

In regard to the more recent offense, Johnson was charged in a Criminal Information filed by the United States Attorney on June 4, 2014, following an investigation by special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Pennsylvania State Police.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Francis P. Sempa prosecuted the case.