PHILA. MAN GUILTY OF DEALING FROM CELL

Michael Diaz Set Up Cocaine Sales From Curran-Fromhold Prison.

A man who admitted he set up cocaine sales from behind bars in a
Philadelphia jail was sentenced yesterday to two to four years in
Bucks County Prison.

Michael Diaz, 37, of Grant Avenue in Northeast Philadelphia, pleaded
guilty to drug charges last month and admitted he used a cell phone to
arrange cocaine transactions -- including one in Bensalem -- while
he was an inmate in Curran-Fromhold Prison.

Bucks County Court Judge Isaac S. Garb authorized Diaz yesterday to
participate in a work-release program. Diaz was a carpenter before he
was sent to jail.

Diaz was in prison on rape and kidnapping charges -- that have since
been reduced to simple assault by a Philadelphia judge -- when he was
approached by a man whom Deputy District Attorney Ellis B. Klein
described as a "confidential informant." Klein declined to identify
the man.

Diaz told Garb yesterday that the man was a potential witness in his
assault trial who had called him in prison to say that he would appear
in court only if Diaz arranged for him to buy some cocaine. Diaz said
he asked fellow inmate Hector Castillo, 21, of North Philadelphia, for
help. Prosecutors said Castillo, in turn, arranged for William Pena,
31, of Northeast Philadelphia, to deliver cocaine to the informant,
once at strip mall near Bustleton Avenue in Bensalem and at a Bensalem
hotel.When Bensalem police arrested him, the man whom authorities
described as a confidential informant agreed to help police gather
evidence against the others.

Garb sentenced the other two men to prison in February -- Castillo
received four to eight years, Pena seven to 14 years.

Besides arranging the transactions, prosecutors said, Diaz also
destroyed evidence -- the cellular phone that had been smuggled into
the prison for Castillo and used to arrange the transactions.

Initially, Diaz's sentencing was delayed when he agreed to cooperate
with authorities and testify against Pena and Castillo. That became
unnecessary when the other two pleaded guilty.