Man In Convoluted Drug Deal Staged As Armed Robbery Admits Selling 'Designer Drugs'

A Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania father may be jailed for up to 20 years after he pleaded guilty on Monday to distributing “designer drugs," a controlled substance analog, before the U.S. District Court Judge Robert D. Mariani.

According to court documents, Fausto Hernandez, age 43, confessed to distributing a “designer drug” known as “4-choroethcathinone” in the Monroe County area in June and July 2019.

Under federal law, the drug is a controlled substance analog that chemically mimics the effects of other controlled substances in Schedule I or II, to the extent they are intended for human consumption.

In a bizarre drug deal in 2019, Hernandez was among three family members who turned against a relative to cover up an illegal transaction, ultimately framing a New York man for armed robbery.

According to an affidavit, Katelin Hernandez, then 19, of Tobyhanna, told police that she was babysitting her younger siblings when her cousin Eugene Pena, then 24, barged into their home and brandished a gun, forcing her to grab a total of $1500 from her mother's purse. The man allegedly then fled the scene following the armed robbery.

Hernandez's mother, Wanda Roman, then 41, allegedly arrived home a short time later and phoned the police about the incident. The matriarch insisted that she was in New York to celebrate the birthday of her husband Fausto Hernandez, then 41, when Pena held their daughter at gunpoint and robbed their home.

The trio each provided their statements to police, alerting authorities that the suspect, Pena, was in Stroudsburg. It subsequently led to Pena's arrest after police tracked him down at a Walmart store in East Stroudsburg.

While in custody, Pena confessed to police that the Hernandez father had asked him to sell three pounds of marijuana and that he was given a backpack containing the illicit drug. He then claimed that the backpack actually contained rabbit chow instead of marijuana, according to the Pocono Record.

Police investigations later concluded that Pena bought the drugs from Fausto and sold three pounds of counterfeit marijuana for $1,300. Authorities further unraveled that the burglary story was a hoax.

Law enforcement then executed a search warrant, locating drugs in the vehicle Pena used to drive to Walmart. The burglary and robbery charges against him were later dismissed, the Morning Call reported.

The Hernandez father will be sentenced at a later date. His conviction is part of the Project Safe Neighborhoods program of the Department of Justice, which brings together all levels of law enforcement to clamp down on violent crime and make the streets safer for residents.