Erie resident gets federal prison for shipping meth from Arizona to Erie and North Dakota

Manuel Lucero not only lived in Erie and North Dakota. He also headed separate drug rings that used the U.S. mail to ship large amounts of methamphetamine from Arizona to both locations.

His new place of residence will be a federal prison.

Lucero, 56, has been sentenced to 15 years of incarceration for pleading guilty in both the Erie and North Dakota cases. The North Dakota case was transferred to U.S. District Court in Erie, where Lucero was sentenced in both cases on Monday.

Lucero faced a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in both cases because of the amount of drugs involved and his prior record. U.S. District Judge Susan Paradise Baxter sentenced him to 15 years in each case, but ran the sentences concurrently at the recommendation of the U.S. Attorney's Office and the defense, according to court records.

Baxter also sentenced Lucero to 10 years of supervised release and ordered him to forfeit $17,731 in cash. She recommended that he get screened in prison for participation in treatment for drug abuse.

Lucero pleaded guilty in the Erie case to conspiracy to traffic in more than 500 grams of meth from November 2019 to March 2020. He pleaded guilty in the North Dakota case to conspiracy to traffic in controlled substances, including more than 500 grams of meth, from January 2019 to June 2020, according to court records.

Lucero was indicted in the Erie case in August 2020 and indicted in the North Dakota case in June 2020. He was arrested in Tempe, Arizona, in October 2020.

Feds said meth in Erie case likely originated in Mexico

Lucero's indictment, which named three co-defendants, was unsealed in September 2020, at the same time the U.S. Attorney's Office in Erie unsealed a separate 16-defendant indictment that alleged the operation of a large-scale meth ring in Crawford and Warren counties. Lucero is not part of the 16-defendant case.

In announcing the indictments, Scott W. Brady, who was then the U.S. attorney for the Pittsburgh-based Western District of Pennsylvania, which includes Erie, described the meth seen in the northwestern Pennsylvania cases as mostly "Mexican cartel meth." He said the drugs come from Mexico and have a greater purity than what investigators used to see on local streets.

"This meth is pure, it's potent, it's abundant and it's cheap,” Brady said at the time.

The prosecution of the other defendants in both meth cases is ongoing, according to court records.

In the Erie-based case that involved Lucero, the amount of meth attributed to him was 5.4 pounds — more than 2,000 grams, according to court records. Lucero's court-appointed lawyer asked Judge Baxter to sentence him to no more than the mandatory minimum of 15 years, with the sentences to run concurrently.

"Manuel Lucero is a drug addict," the lawyer, R. Damien Schorr, of Pittsburgh, said in a sentencing memorandum. "His criminal history is replete with the types of crimes drug addicts commit. He is a 56-year-old petty criminal."

The prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Sellers, asked Baxter to give Lucero a sentence within the recommended federal sentencing guidelines, which called for a sentence of at least 188 months, or 15 years and eight months. Baxter's sentence of 15 years nearly matched that request.

Drug-detecting dog helped crack Arizona-to-Erie meth ring

In using the mail to deliver meth, Lucero risked postal inspectors catching him. Investigators got their break on Feb. 17, 2020. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service intercepted a suspicious Priority Mail parcel sent to an address in Erie from Phoenix, Arizona, according to an application for a search warrant in the Erie case against Lucero.

After a drug-detecting dog raised the alert, according to the affidavit for the search warrant, investigators got the warrant to search the package and found 1.91 pounds of meth in two separate vacuum-sealed freezer bags wrapped in cellophane. The affidavit said investigators lifted fingerprints from the packaging and matched them with those of Lucero.

On March 12, 2020, investigators intercepted another suspicious package sent to another Erie address with a return address in Phoenix. According to the affidavit, investigators found 2.82 pounds of meth in vacuum-sealed freezer bags inside the package.

Based on the search of the package, investigators got a search warrant for the residence where the parcel was sent. There, according to the affidavit, investigators found 6 ounces of meth, $17,731 in cash and drug paraphernalia. Based on evidence obtained in that search, investigators got a search warrant for a self-storage unit in Erie.

The search of the unit on March 13, 2020, revealed, according to the affidavit, meth, digital scales, plastic baggies, paraphernalia consistent with drug distribution, packaging materials, a vacuum sealer consistent with the type used to package the drugs seized in the two parcels, shipping materials, empty hotel safes and "identification indica" for Lucero and one of his co-defendants.

Lead defendant in Erie, North Dakota meth case was once homeless

In the North Dakota case, Lucero and four co-defendants were accused of using the U.S. mail to deliver meth, according to the indictment. It also alleges that Lucero and the co-defendants rented apartments in Bismarck and Mandan, across the Missouri River from Bismarck, as locations where they stored and distributed the drugs.

Lucero worked in Mandan for a time. About six years ago, he was living in a homeless shelter and working as a temporary employee through an employment agency, according to a letter one of his former bosses submitted to Baxter in advance of the sentencing.

The former boss, who owns a building company, said Lucero worked for him before and after Lucero was arrested and jailed in another drug case. The former boss said he would keep a job for Lucero if he ever returned to North Dakota.

"I watched Manuel go from a homeless shelter to having his own apartment," according to the letter. "He was a dedicated and responsible employee. I can't say enough about him so you will understand when I say how deeply disappointed I was to hear of his affliction.

"I hope you see to it in your heart to be lenient and get him the help he needs. I would be glad to offer him employment when this is all behind him."

Indictment: Erie-area meth cases: Informants, parcels yield charges

Arrest: Authorities nab Erie man indicted federally in methamphetamine-trafficking probe

Contact Ed Palattella at epalattella@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNpalattella.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Head of meth rings in Erie and North Dakota gets long federal sentence