North Side man caught with 100 bricks of heroin gets nearly 4 years in prison

A Pittsburgh man caught with more than 100 bricks of heroin at his North Side home has been sentenced to three years and 10 months in prison, federal prosecutors said Thursday.

Kawama Hightower, 41, was convicted of possession with intent to distribute heroin and crack cocaine and maintaining a drug-involved premises, U.S. Attorney Scott W. Brady said.

During a hearing, U.S. District Judge Donetta W. Ambrose told Highwater that the 46-month sentence aimed to “hold him accountable for his crimes, reflect the seriousness of his crimes and protect the public,” according to Brady.

Hightower was nabbed last year by local police and federal agents stemming from an operation by FBI’s Western District of Pennsylvania Opioid Task Force.

Highwater was driving away from his residence in the city’s North Side on Sept. 11 when FBI investigators pulled him over and conducted a traffic stop, prosecutors said.

They found inside his car crack cocaine and $4,000 in cash, prosecutors said.

Later that day, investigators served a search warrant on Hightower’s residence and found more crack cocaine and 100 bricks of heroin, or just over half a pound — enough to fill about 5,000 stamp bags, the small packets used to sell the illegal street drug.

Officials seized the drugs along with two loaded guns, ammunition, digital scales and drug packaging materials, Brady said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark V. Gurzo prosecuted the case.

The FBI had help from the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office, Allegheny County Police, Allegheny County Sheriff’s Department and Port Authority of Allegheny County, along with police from Pittsburgh, Munhall, McKees Rocks, West Mifflin.