Feds announce 57 arrests in Operation Lake Effect bust of fentanyl, meth ring

An investigation that stretched over four years and across the country resulted in the arrests of 57 people, the seizure of more than 673 pounds of fentanyl-laced faked prescription pills and more than 400 pounds of methamphetamine, the acting U.S. Attorney in Pittsburgh announced Friday.

“Nearly every family in Western Pennsylvania has been touched in some way by the scourge of the opioid epidemic and the deadly drug fentanyl,” Acting U.S. Attorney Troy Rivetti said. “These overdose deaths are devastating families, and communities have been shattered by this crisis.”

The investigation discussed Friday, dubbed Operation Lake Effect, began with street-level drug activity in Johnstown but unfolded across the country. While a large number of arrests occurred in Arizona, the investigation also led to Phoenix, Cleveland, Minneapolis, Seattle, Las Vegas and Mexico.

On Thursday, 24 people were arrested in Western Pennsylvania, and 21 were arrested in Arizona. Dozens more have been charged in state court.

Ten of the people charged are from the Alle-Kiski Valley, seven are from Indiana County, and one is from Pittsburgh.

Police activity was seen across the Valley in the hours just before and after dawn in Arnold, Gilpin, New Kensington, Tarentum, Upper Burrell and Vandergrift.

According to a criminal complaint filed in the case, over the course of the investigation, law enforcement collected information from seven confidential sources, conducted wiretaps on more than 70 telephones, served search warrants on 40 Apple iCloud accounts, issued more than 140 grand jury subpoenas and conducted hundreds of hours of surveillance.

All of the cases, including the defendants from Arizona, will be tried in the Western District of Pennsylvania’s Johnstown courthouse.

“The FBI and our partners at (Homeland Security Investigations) have national and international reach, which allowed us to identify sources of supply and networks that enabled these dangerous drugs to come to Western Pennsylvania,” said FBI Pittsburgh Special Agent in Charge Mike Nordwall. “Investigations of this scale don’t happen overnight, and they can’t happen without strong partnerships. Because of these partnerships, today, there are more than 2 million fentanyl pills off the streets. Think about the number of overdose events that have been prevented.”

Fentanyl, Rivetti said, is 50 times more potent than heroin, and just 2 milligrams — the amount that could fit on the tip of a pencil — is a potentially lethal dose.

“The sheer quantity of narcotics seized and the magnitude of those charges in this case is staggering in and of itself,” said William Walker, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations Philadelphia. “But when you take a step back, and you think about the results, it becomes even more evident how the hard work of the investigators and prosecutors save lives and change communities for the better.”

Over the past five years, Walker said, his organization has seized more than 54,000 pounds of fentanyl — enough doses to kill 12 billion people.

“And yet the sad reality is, for the first time in our country’s history, last year, over 100,000 Americans lost their lives to drug overdoses. That’s more than 270 a day — and so, clearly, more work has to be done.”

The investigation, which began in 2018, included more than 50 controlled buys, the government said. Wiretaps, which began in May, revealed that a large portion of the drugs were being sourced from Mexico through Arizona, Rivetti said.

In addition to the drugs that were recovered in Operation Lake Effect, Rivetti said, law enforcement also seized more than $600,000 in cash, nine vehicles and 47 firearms, including fully automatic weapons.