Career Offender Sentenced to 151 Months’ Imprisonment for Methamphetamine Distribution

TRENTON, N.J. - An Ocean County woman was sentenced for distributing over 1,500 pills containing methamphetamine, United States Attorney Robert Frazer announced.

Denise Manco, 49, of Little Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey, pleaded guilty on May 27, 2025 before U.S. District Judge Zahid N. Quraishi in Trenton federal court to one count of distributing and possessing with the intent to distribute methamphetamine. Judge Quraishi imposed the 151-month sentence on June 8, 2026 in Trenton federal court.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

Between August 2022 through March 2023, undercover law enforcement officers executed several controlled purchases of pills from Manco. These pills were presented by Manco as containing ecstasy or MDMA, but in fact contained methamphetamine. Officers also executed a search warrant of Manco's Ocean County residence, where officers seized a variety of controlled substances and various items associated with drug manufacturing and distribution, including binding powder, scales, and glassine bags. Manco's prior state convictions for distribution of controlled substances and manslaughter qualified her to be sentenced as a "career offender" under the United States Sentencing Guidelines, significantly increasing her sentencing exposure.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Quraishi sentenced Manco to five years of supervised release following Manco's term of imprisonment.

U.S. Attorney Frazer credited special agents and task force officers of the Drug Enforcement Administration, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Towanda R. Thorne-James, special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation - Newark Division, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Stefanie Roddy, and the New Jersey Department of Corrections, under the direction of Commissioner Victory L. Kuhn, Esq., for the investigation leading to the sentencing.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan S. Garelick of the U.S. Attorney's Office Criminal Division in Trenton.

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Defense counsel: Serguel Mawuko Akiti, Esq., of Lowther Walker LLC.