A Niagara Falls man will spend more than five years in prison after trying to flee from police with a bag containing drugs and a gun in 2024.
Eric Rivera, 39, of Niagara Falls, who has been convicted of possession with intent to distribute of 400 grams or more of fentanyl and being a felon in possession of ammunition, was sentenced to serve 70 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara, according to U.S. Attorney Michael DiGiacomo.
Assistant U.S. Attorney P. Richard Antoine, who handled the case, said that on March 14, 2024, members of the Niagara Falls Police Department were executing a search warrant at an Ontario Avenue residence. Shortly after entering the residence, an investigator looked out the back door and saw a man throw a shopping bag over a fence, jump over the fence, and run before entering an abandoned garage next door with the bag, and then exiting without the bag. The man looked back toward law enforcement vehicles while attempting to hide. Investigators quickly located Rivera and a narcotics detection K-9 dog alerted to the presence of narcotics in the back of the garage, where investigators located the bag Rivera was seen holding.
Investigators seized approximately 18 grams of cocaine and fentanyl, 642 grams of heroin and fentanyl, approximately eight grams of cocaine, 1,511 grams of fentanyl, drug paraphernalia, a firearm, magazines, and ammunition.
In March 2007, Rivera was convicted in Erie County Court of fifth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and is legally prohibited from possessing a firearm.
The sentencing is the result of an investigation by the Niagara Falls Police Department, under the direction of Superintendent Nicholas Ligammari and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, under the direction of Special Agent-in-Charge Bryan DiGirolamo, New York Field Division.