Jonathan Bishop

Introduction

Jonathan Bishop is a 42-year-old man from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, who was sentenced on October 30, 2026, to 41 months in federal prison for conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine base and methamphetamine. United States District Judge Joseph F. Saporito, Jr. imposed the sentence along with a term of supervised release. Bishop admitted that between February 2024 and June 2025 he conspired with members of the Jerrod Curtis Drug Trafficking Organization — the Curtis DTO — to move cocaine base and methamphetamine through Luzerne County and elsewhere, making him one of eight members of that organization convicted or sentenced in the same prosecution.

Background Information

The Curtis DTO case is the larger framework around Bishop’s sentence: a Homeland Security Task Force prosecution built by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Wilkes-Barre City Police Department, the Wilkes-Barre Township Police Department, the Pennsylvania State Police, and the Luzerne County Drug Task Force, with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania leading the prosecution. The task force operates under Executive Order 14159 as a whole-of-government partnership aimed at criminal organizations, and the announcement situates Bishop’s case inside that initiative. Bishop’s own role, as he admitted it, ran through the sixteen months from February 2024 to June 2025 — the distribution window during which the conspiracy operated in and around Wilkes-Barre. The announcement gives no occupation or personal history for him beyond his age and city, and this page does not guess at either.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Convicted and sentenced. Bishop pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 41 months in prison for conspiring with the Curtis DTO to distribute cocaine base and methamphetamine.

According to the announcement, Bishop previously admitted that between February 2024 and June 2025 he conspired with other members of the Jerrod Curtis Drug Trafficking Organization to distribute quantities of cocaine base and methamphetamine in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere. He was not the last of the organization to face the court: seven additional co-conspirators either pleaded or were found guilty in the same prosecution before Judge Saporito. Jerrod Curtis, 42, of Wilkes-Barre, was found guilty of conspiracy and other drug trafficking crimes after a three-week trial in September 2026 and is awaiting sentencing. Paul Daniel Chavis, known as "Payne," 57, of Wilkes-Barre, and Reneard Harris, 68, of Wilkes-Barre, were also found guilty after that three-week September trial and await sentencing. Carlos Vasquez, 36, of Wilkes-Barre, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 40 months in September 2026; Leroy Scriven, known as "L," 56, of Exeter, and Joshua Forrester-Westad, 44, of Plains Township, pleaded guilty and await sentencing; Pamela Montano, 61, of Exeter, pleaded guilty and received nine months in September 2026.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The consequence recorded for Bishop is the 41-month custody term imposed by Judge Saporito on October 30, 2026, together with supervised release. The announcement, made under U.S. Attorney Brian D. Miller, presents the sentence as part of the task force’s broader effort against the Curtis organization rather than as an isolated case — the same prosecution file produced guilty verdicts at trial for the organization’s namesake and two others, and sentences for three more members who pleaded. The release records no public statement from Bishop or defense counsel and no separate proceeding beyond the criminal case. For the Wilkes-Barre area, the prosecution’s institutional footprint was the five-agency investigation that mapped the distribution network from Wilkes-Barre City streets to the county drug task force’s files.

Current Status

Bishop was sentenced on October 30, 2026, by United States District Judge Joseph F. Saporito, Jr., and is serving 41 months for the conspiracy conviction, with supervised release to follow custody. His case sits alongside the pending sentencings of Curtis, Chavis, Scriven, and Forrester-Westad — the members found guilty at trial or awaiting judgment — while Vasquez’s 40 months and Montano’s nine months are already imposed. The announcement did not report an appeal from Bishop, so the disposition stands as announced. Assistant U.S. Attorney James M. Buchanan prosecuted the case.

Impact on Their Career/Life

At 42, Bishop leaves the case with a federal drug-trafficking conviction and roughly three and a half years of custody ahead of him, followed by supervised release whose conditions will govern where he lives, works, and travels after prison. The conviction permanently records his admitted role in the Curtis DTO’s sixteen-month distribution operation, and it lands as part of an organization-wide outcome in which every charged member of the conspiracy has now either been sentenced or awaits sentencing. The Homeland Security Task Force framing means the case is also a data point in a federal enforcement initiative that treats local distribution networks as part of the transnational criminal-organization problem, a designation that follows Bishop’s file wherever his post-custody supervision takes him.

Sources

• U.S. Attorney’s Office, Middle District of Pennsylvania, "Homeland Security Task Force Investigation Leads to Luzerne County Man Being Sentenced to 41 Months’ Imprisonment," November 4, 2026. source