Pittsburgh man pleads guilty to heroin distribution via South Side gang-linked drug ring

A Pittsburgh man caught throwing 17 bricks of heroin off the balcony of a Homestead hotel and making drug deals in the Penn Hills area has been convicted for his role in a drug ring linked to a local street gang.

Henry Johnson, 30, of the city’s South Side neighborhood, pleaded guilty to one count of narcotics trafficking in federal court in Downtown Pittsburgh, said Acting U.S. Attorney Stephen R. Kaufman.

Johnson will remain in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service until his March 24 sentencing hearing. He could face a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and a fine up to $2 million, according to Kaufman.

Johnson was among several dozen suspects nabbed by the FBI in summer 2019 as part of a two-year federal wiretap investigation into drug and gun activity tied to the gang known as Darccide/Smash 44, or DS44, which prosecutors say is based out of the Knoxville, Arlington and Mt. Oliver neighborhoods.

Most of the co-defendants — including gang leaders and members, drug suppliers, dealers and their associates — hailed from the Pittsburgh area, with some from West Mifflin and McKees Rocks in Allegheny County, Irwin in Westmoreland County and Peters Township in Washington County. One was from West Virginia, and another from New York.

Between January 2018 and June 2019, the drug ring and its affiliates moved heroin and fentanyl totaling 1,000 to 3,000 kilograms, or between 2,200 and 6,600 pounds, according to prosecutors.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid painkiller that can be 50 to 100 times stronger than heroin, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports.

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Prosecutors said that Christopher Highsmith of Irwin ran the conspiracy, including acquiring the heroin, fentanyl, cocaine and other illegal drugs and directing lower-level members of DS 44 to deliver them, collect money and maintain financial records. He would respond to inquiring buyers via phone and text message.

Highsmith pleaded guilty to his role as a ringleader in early May. He was sentenced to 15 years behind bars.

Investigators conducted court-approved wire taps on cellphones of suspects and their contacts — including Johnson and Highsmith — over four months from February to June 2019, when the federal grand jury handed up an initial indictment.

Undercover officers also conducted surveillance, including observing Johnson purchasing large sums of heroin and fentanyl from Highsmith along streets and parking lots in the city as well as eastern suburbs of Penn Hills and Verona.

On Dec. 6, 2018, West Homestead police responded to a report of suspected illegal drug activity at a hotel and saw Johnson toss two bags from his hotel room into the parking lot, court records show. Inside the bags were 17 bricks of a mixture of heroin and fentanyl, plus 12 grams of cocaine base and six grams of cocaine, officials said. Stamps marked on the bricks matched those seized during the investigation into Johnson and Highsmith’s co-defendants and conspirators.

A total of 40 people were ultimately charged in the broader case.

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