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WILKES-BARRE — A federal judge last week sentenced a city man to 57 months in prison for his role in a cocaine ring that prosecutors say brought the drug into the state from Puerto Rico.

Ronald Drayton, 48, received the sentence Thursday in U.S. District Court in Scranton, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced Monday.

Drayton was charged with conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance in November 2014 and pleaded guilty Aug. 23. Six others have entered guilty pleas in the case, prosecutors said.

Drayton distributed between 500 grams and two kilograms of cocaine between January 2013 and November 2014, prosecutors said. The cocaine was shipped to the state from Puerto Rico.

Drayton is awaiting trial on unrelated charges stemming from a 2015 shooting inside the Passion Lounge on Scott Street. He is charged with firing a round from a handgun that struck Marcese Cloward Grant in the leg during a melee inside the nightclub. Grant survived the gunshot injury.

Drayton is scheduled for a hearing on the matter next week.

He remains jailed at the Lackawanna County prison.

Drayton
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/web1_Ronald-Drayton-website-7-10-15_toned.jpg.optimal.jpgDrayton

By Joe Dolinsky

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Reach Joe Dolinsky at 570-991-6110 or on Twitter @JoeDolinskyTL