Feds take down drug ring dealing meth in Western Pa.

Ten people from California, Michigan and Pennsylvania, including three from the Pittsburgh area, are charged in federal court with trafficking methamphetamine and other hard drugs in Western Pennsylvania.

Christopher Love, 28, and Calil Francois-Moon, 20, both of Homestead, and Jonathan Toledo, 25, of Turtle Creek, were indicted last month on conspiracy charges.

Toledo faces additional counts for attempting to distribute fentanyl and meth.

The case was unsealed last week.

The three are charged with seven others from Los Angeles, Detroit and Central Pennsylvania with attempting to distribute drugs, including meth, heroin, fentanyl and cocaine from November 2023 through March.

Court papers filed by federal prosecutors in connection with one of the Michigan defendants, Raymone Grier Jr., said law enforcement investigated the ring for more than a year and intercepted phone calls as part of its probe.

The wiretaps proved fruitful for investigators, according to court papers.

“These intercepted communications provide, in the defendant’s and co-conspirators’ own words, a day-by-day guide to their significant drug-trafficking activities, including intercepted communications concerning the transportation of large amounts of narcotics,” prosecutors wrote.

A grand jury returned an indictment July 22 against the 10 defendants.

Following that, investigators went to a home in Aliquippa to arrest Grier, 24, of Detroit along with a second Detroit resident, Terrence Spivey, 29.

They took Spivey into custody but they missed Grier, who was arrested in Detroit last Thursday.

Prosecutors called Grier “a member of an international drug-trafficking organization with vast resources at its disposal …”

They described Grier as “a mid-level distributor for a well-organized, logistically sophisticated drug-trafficking organization that surreptitiously moved large amounts of narcotics across state lines” through the postal service and UPS.

Prosecutors wrote they believed Grier to be armed, and they said he and Spivey suspected another co-conspirator was cooperating with the investigation.

Spivey, they said, “indicated that he wanted to ‘kill’ that individual.”

No attorney was listed for Grier or Moon. Spivey’s lawyer could not be reached for comment.

Stanton Levenson, who represents Toledo, declined comment, saying he had not yet been provided discovery materials.

As part of the indictment, federal investigators are seeking the forfeiture of more than $2,000 in cash; three firearms; ammunition and cell phones.

The prosecution is seeking detention for all three Pittsburgh area defendants.

The Drug Enforcement Administration led the investigation and was assisted by various federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, including Pittsburgh police.