New Jersey Man Sentenced to 87 Months in Prison for Possessing Oxycodone for Sale Illegally
| U.S. Attorney’s Office September 12, 2011 |
CAMDEN, NJ—A Rio Grande, N.J., man who traveled to Florida 29 times to illegally obtain and distribute oxycodone was sentenced today to 87 months in federal prison for possession of the drug with intent to distribute, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
Joseph Baker, 44, pleaded guilty Feb. 23, 2011, before U.S. District Judge Joseph H. Rodriguez to an indictment charging him with illegally possessing oxycodone with the intent to distribute it. Judge Rodriguez also imposed the sentence today in Camden federal court.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
Baker was arrested at Atlantic City International Airport on October 21, 2008. During a lawful search incident to the arrest, law enforcement located and seized quantities of oxycodone. Baker had traveled to Florida and brought the drugs back with him the same day on a return flight to Atlantic City, N.J. Baker admitted that he intended to distribute a portion of the oxycodone seized.
Baker also admitted that he made similar, one-day round trips from New Jersey to Florida on 28 other occasions between 2004 and 2008, obtaining oxycodone which he intended to distribute on each occasion. Baker does not have a license permitting him to distribute oxycodone or any controlled substance.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Rodriguez ordered Baker to serve three years of supervised release.
U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Atlantic City Resident Office, and diversion investigators of the DEA Camden Diversion Group, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Brian R. Crowell in Newark; the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office; Egg Harbor Township Police Department, and the New Jersey State Police with the investigation.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney R. Stephen Stigall of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Camden.
Defense counsel: Brian S. O’Malley Esq., Haddon Heights, N.J.