SCRANTON, Pennsylvania — A Brooklyn man who was on parole for a homicide conviction in New York when Pennsylvania State Police stopped him for speeding on Interstate 380 and found cocaine and a fentanyl analogue in his vehicle has been sentenced to 120 months — ten years — in federal prison. Rodari Sam, 50, of Brooklyn, New York, was sentenced on October 21, 2026, by United States District Judge Karoline Mehalchick for possession with intent to distribute controlled substances, the United States Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
According to United States Attorney Brian D. Miller, a federal jury found Sam guilty on March 31, 2026, of possessing 250 grams of cocaine and 99 grams of fluorofentanyl, a fentanyl analogue. The sentence, imposed in the federal court based in Scranton, closes a case that began with a routine speeding stop in Monroe County more than two and a half years ago and was later reported in detail by WBRE/WYOU (28/22 News) in northeastern Pennsylvania.
Source: WBRE/WYOU (28/22 News)
A speeding stop on Interstate 380
The evidence in the case showed that on March 7, 2024, Sam was stopped by the Pennsylvania State Police on Interstate 380 in Monroe County for speeding. During the stop, Sam repeatedly provided the state trooper with false information, and a search of his vehicle revealed the drugs — the 250 grams of cocaine and 99 grams of fluorofentanyl on which the jury later convicted him.
One fact followed Sam through the whole case: at the time of the stop, he was on parole for a homicide conviction in New York. Federal prosecutors do not treat a drug load found in the car of a parolee with that history as a minor possession matter, and the case was built as a federal trafficking prosecution rather than a state traffic-court case.
Why a traffic stop became a federal case
The investigation was conducted jointly by the FBI's Philadelphia office — its Capital Area Resident Agency — and the Pennsylvania State Police, the two agencies that work many of the highway drug cases in this part of Pennsylvania together. The prosecution was handled by Assistant United States Attorneys Patrick Bannon and Jenny P. Roberts, and the sentencing was announced by United States Attorney Brian D. Miller.
The Justice Department says the case sits under Project Safe Neighborhoods, its nationwide initiative that coordinates federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement against violent crime, and which the department describes as a key component of Operation Take Back America. In the department's framing, the initiative emphasises a rapid federal response to serious offenders, strategic partnerships between agencies, and accountability through prosecuting the most serious, readily provable offences.
The corridor and the drug
Interstate 380 runs through Monroe County in Pennsylvania's Pocono region, linking Interstate 80 with the Scranton area and Interstate 84. It is one of the main road corridors between the New York metropolitan area and northeastern Pennsylvania, carrying heavy daily commuter traffic and large numbers of trucks — and, as this case shows, it is a corridor state troopers and federal agents watch closely for drug loads moving between the two states.
The second drug in the vehicle matters to why the sentence is as long as it is. The Justice Department identifies fluorofentanyl as a fentanyl analogue — a substance chemically related to fentanyl. Cases involving fentanyl-family substances are prosecuted aggressively in the Middle District of Pennsylvania, and Sam's load combined the analogue with a quarter of a kilogram of cocaine, in the car of a man on parole for homicide.
Stopped for speeding on I-380 in Monroe County on March 7, 2024; convicted by a federal jury on March 31, 2026, of possessing 250 grams of cocaine and 99 grams of fluorofentanyl with intent to distribute; sentenced on October 21, 2026, to 120 months in federal prison by Judge Karoline Mehalchick in Scranton.
What happens next
Sam will now serve the 120-month term in federal custody. The Justice Department's announcement did not mention an appeal, and no further hearing was announced with the sentence. For drivers who use this corridor daily — including the many Punjabi truckers and commuters who run I-380, I-80 and I-84 between Pennsylvania and New York — the case is a concrete reminder that on these highways a speeding stop is worked jointly by the Pennsylvania State Police and the FBI, and that a load found in the vehicle can turn a traffic stop into a decade in federal prison.