Heroin courier loses bid for reduced sentence
NORRISTOWN » What essentially amounts to a life prison sentence will remain intact for an East Norriton man convicted of transporting heroin in retrofitted car batteries from Atlanta to New York City, via Montgomery County, a judge has ruled.
David Pacheco’s request for a reduction in the 40to 80-year prison term he received last month was denied by Montgomery County Judge Garrett D. Page, according to court documents. The judge did not elaborate on his reasons for turning down Pacheco’s request and will have to put his reasons in writing only if Pacheco takes his appeal to the Pennsylvania Superior Court.
District Attorney Kevin R. Steele opposed any reduction in Pacheco’s sentence and called the punishment “appropriate,” maintaining it “reflects the severity and magnitude of the crimes he committed.”
“He trafficked 27 kilos of heroin — poison that the defendant distributed. Hopefully, this lengthy sentence will act as a deterrent to other drug dealers operating in and around Montgomery County,” Steele said.
“This sentence sends a strong message that if a dealer continues to profit by peddling poison, they will pay for their crimes by spending a significant portion of their lives behind bars in state prison. Pacheco’s sentence was not only an appropriate one, but a necessary one to make sure that everyone understands the ramifications for the death and destruction this crime causes in our communities,” Steele added.
Defense lawyer John I. McMahon Jr. had argued that Pacheco’s sentence was “outrageously harsh” and unreasonable. McMahon argued Page abused his discretion by erroneously imposing a sentence that is fit for a “drug kingpin” when Pacheco “can best be described as only a drug mule or drug courier.”
McMahon argued the sentence imposed upon Pacheco was nearly double the sentence received by other defendants prosecuted in the conspiracy, referring to the 25- to 40year sentences imposed against conspirators prosecuted in Georgia. McMahon claimed Pacheco’s sentence was “shockingly 40 times greater” than that given to another defendant in Montgomery County in 2016 for similar conduct.
Last month, Page sentenced Pacheco, of the 200 block of West Johnson Highway, to 40 to 80 years in state prison, to be followed by 10 years’ probation, in connection with nine drug deliveries that he completed between April 2015 and January 2016. For the 46-year-old Pacheco, the sentence essentially is a life sentence.
During a four-day trial in August, a jury convicted Pacheco, who operated a successful towing business, D&J Towing in the 100 block of West Marshall Street in Norristown, of charges of possession with intent to deliver heroin, dealing in proceeds of unlawful activities and criminal use of communication facilities.
With the charges, Steele alleged Pacheco transported 27 kilos of heroin, nearly 60 pounds, which had a street value of about $9 million. Authorities estimated the 27 kilos could have been divided into 891,000 doses of heroin.
The jury acquitted Pacheco of a single charge of corrupt organizations and McMahon interpreted that as a signal the jury found no evidence that Pacheco benefitted financially from his activities as a “drug mule.”
During the trial, Pacheco did not dispute that he transported heroin but he claimed he did so under duress by a Mexican drug cartel, the New Generation Cartel Jalisco, which threatened his relatives. Pacheco testified he believed the cartel would kill his brothers in Mexico if he didn’t cooperate.
Pacheco testified men he believed were associates of the cartel visited his Norristown towing business in early 2015 and also showed him photographs of his parents, which he believed was a thinly-veiled threat against his family if he did not cooperate.
McMahon argued the cartels use extortion, the threat of kidnapping family and relatives and even murder to get otherwise law-abiding Mexican immigrants to assist them. Pacheco came to the U.S. 18 years ago, had no criminal record and worked seven days a week operating a successful towing business in Norristown, McMahon argued.
But Steele and co-prosecutor Robert Kolansky argued Pacheco willingly smuggled the heroin out of greed to make money with the “poison he was peddling.” Steele questioned why Pacheco never sought help from police or requested witness protection if he felt he was being intimidated by a drug cartel.
Authorities, who dubbed the nine month investigation “Operation EverStart,” documented at least nine trips that Pacheco made between April 2015 and January 2016 to service wholesale heroin buyers in New York.
Kolansky and Steele said the investigation revealed that each time Pacheco drove to Atlanta he received kilos of heroin in retrofitted, working car batteries, which he then drove to Montgomery County and then to the Bronx, N.Y. Once Pacheco was paid for the heroin in New York he would return to Atlanta with the cash for a supplier there.
Pacheco was arrested Jan. 10, 2016, at the King of Prussia toll plaza of the Pennsylvania Turnpike in his Ford F-250 pickup truck with three kilos of uncut heroin, which was enough to divide into 100,000 individual street doses that had a total street value of about $1 million, prosecutors argued.
A member of the county’s Violent Crime Unit testified the investigation included information from confidential sources, electronic and physical surveillance, including courtordered wiretaps on Pacheco’s four cellphones, as well as an analysis of call detail records. During the trial, jurors listened to the wiretapped phone conversations between Pacheco and other conspirators.