Former Port Vue man gets 15-year prison term for role in 2015 heroin shipments

A former Port Vue man has been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for his role in orchestrating shipments of heroin from New Jersey to Allegheny County in 2015.

In the sentencing announced Wednesday in Pittsburgh, U.S. District Court Judge Cathy Bissoon also ordered Jarran Bell, 38, to complete 10 years of supervised release following his term behind bars. He pleaded guilty to three counts of possession and conspiring to distribute heroin.

In April 2015, Bell and his girlfriend, Krystle Barretto, orchestrated two large shipments of heroin from Patterson, N.J., to the area of McKeesport and Port Vue, according to court documents. That included transport of about 500 “bricks” of heroin on April 19 of that year by courier Amanda Santiago, using a taxi cab, prosecutors said.

The following day, agents seized the heroin and also searched Bell and Barretto’s bedroom, seizing a loaded firearm, about five additional bricks of heroin and a money counter.

Santiago pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 2½ years in prison.

Barretto, who pleaded guilty, was sentenced to six years in prison followed by four years of supervised release.

The guilty pleas resulted from a federal wiretap investigation that intercepted at least 10 cell phones from December 2014 to April 2015.

The investigation “established the existence of a number of overlapping and interrelated drug distribution networks” at work in Clairton, McKeesport and Port Vue as well as areas of Washington and Westmoreland counties, according to U.S. Attorney Scott W. Brady.