One did five years for fentanyl. The other shot a man over a video game, fled to New York, and did five years for attempted homicide. Now they’re both back in federal court.
LUZERNE COUNTY — A Hughestown man who walked out of federal prison after a fentanyl trafficking conviction is back in front of a federal grand jury — this time on cocaine charges, court records show.
Jhaquil Moore, 30, known as “Twizz,” was indicted Tuesday alongside Keith Hayes, 34, of Jenkins Township, on conspiracy charges alleging the two distributed cocaine in Luzerne County and elsewhere. The indictment was announced by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
Moore is no stranger to federal court in Scranton. In 2018, he was convicted of conspiring to distribute between 100 and 300 grams of fentanyl mixed with acetyl fentanyl — enough, prosecutors said at the time, to produce 50,000 to 150,000 potentially lethal doses. U.S. District Judge Robert D. Mariani sentenced him to 60 months in October 2019. Two co-defendants, Chyvonne Traver and Kayla Clark, pleaded guilty in that same case to fentanyl and firearms offenses.
Tuesday’s indictment alleges Moore and Hayes conspired to distribute cocaine between February and May 2026, and that the two carried out at least six separate transactions stretching back to February 2025 — a timeline that began while Moore would have been on federal supervised release from his prior sentence.
Hayes’s Violent Record
Hayes faces a separate charge on top of the drug counts. Federal authorities say he was found carrying a stolen Glock 43X on May 12. That charge carries extra weight given his record.
In March 2015, Hayes — known on the street as “Keefy Blood” — shot Brandon Eubanks multiple times in the neck and body on the second floor of the Sherman Hills Apartment complex in Wilkes-Barre. He was charged with attempted homicide, two counts of aggravated assault, possession of a prohibited firearm, and recklessly endangering another person. Eubanks survived. Hayes fled to New York City, where police picked him up that summer. He pleaded guilty in February 2016 and was immediately sentenced to at least five years in state prison. Authorities said the shooting was over a video game system. That conviction is what bars him from legally possessing firearms under federal law.
The prior fentanyl case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Luzerne County Drug Task Force — the same task force involved in Tuesday’s investigation, alongside the DEA and the Luzerne County District Attorney’s Office.
If convicted on the cocaine conspiracy charge, both men face up to 20 years in federal prison, a term of supervised release, and substantial fines. The firearms charge against Hayes carries additional federal exposure.
Both men are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court.
Pocono Review covers courts and public safety across Monroe, Wayne, Pike, Carbon, Lackawanna, and Luzerne counties.
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