Man receives sentence after local arrest, leaving the country to escape prosecution

MERCER, Pa . (WKBN) – A man from the Dominican Republic who was arrested locally and then tried to leave the country to avoid prosecution received a six-and-a-half-year prison sentence.

Habys Omar Meran, 38, will also be on five years of supervised probation following his release from prison.

Meran pleaded guilty to charges of heroin trafficking and criminal conspiracy in November.

According to the District Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania, Meran was driving a van on Interstate 80 in Mercer County on Jan. 26, 2016, and was found to have a hidden, hydraulic compartment in the vehicle that contained over 4 kilograms of heroin, valued at over $2 million.

After his arrest, prosecutors say Meran removed his ankle monitor and left the country before his November 2017 trial. He was later arrested in the Dominican Republic in 2023 and was extradited to the U.S.

U.S. District Judge Robert J. Colville said the seriousness of Meran’s drug-trafficking actions and his subsequent flight from justice warranted the significant sentence imposed. Colville also ordered that the vehicle used to transport the drugs be forfeited to the federal government and noted that Meran would be deported to the Dominican Republic after serving his 78-month term of imprisonment.

Meran’s passenger, Juan Wilquin Hernandez-Bourdier, was also convicted in the case and is serving a 10-year sentence in the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

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