Man charged with selling fentanyl, crack to informant during drug sting faces felony charges | TribLIVE.com
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Man charged with selling fentanyl, crack to informant during drug sting faces felony charges

Tony LaRussa
| Thursday, December 29, 2022 11:01 a.m.
Courtesy of Westmoreland County jail
Luther Lewis Boyd

Lower Burrell police accused a man of being a drug dealer after, they say, he sold crack cocaine to an informant during an undercover investigation.

Luther Lewis Boyd, 41, of Bedford Avenue in Pittsburgh’s Hill District was charged with four felony counts of possession of drugs with the intent to deliver along with two counts of drug possession and a count of tampering with evidence.

Boyd was being detained in the Westmoreland County jail in lieu of a $150,000 cash bond, according to court records. He faces a preliminary hearing Thursday before District Judge Frank J. Pallone Jr.

Agents from the state Attorney General’s Office, the Westmoreland County Drug Task Force and Lower Burrell police set up a controlled drug buy Nov. 9 using an informant who went to a prearranged location in an alley near the intersection of Fourth Avenue and Sixth Street, according to a criminal complaint.

The agents watched as one of three people in the vehicle exchanged suspected crack cocaine for money, the complaint said. The suspected drugs were wrapped in a piece of white paper towel, police said.

One of the officers participating in the sting identified Boyd as the man in the vehicle who sold the drugs, the complaint said.

Police said the car was stopped in the 700 block of Fifth Avenue and was driven by a woman whose license was suspended for DUI.

A man was seated in the rear seat, but Boyd was gone when the car was pulled over, the complaint said.

The woman gave police permission to search the car, where they found a bottle filled with 20.57 grams of suspected fentanyl pills, according to the complaint. A digital scale with crack cocaine residue also was found in the vehicle, the complaint said.

The passenger told police that Boyd supplied him with the pills the previous night for his ankle pain, and officers noted that his leg was wrapped in a compression bandage, the complaint said.

The man also told police that, after the vehicle pulled into the alley, he saw Boyd exchange the drugs for cash, the complaint said.

He said Boyd was suspicious that police might be nearby, so the woman dropped him off at the First National Bank in New Kensington so he could exchange the money from the drug deal for bills that couldn’t be identified by police, the complaint said.

Boyd was picked up a short time later on Ninth Street and taken back to the scene of the traffic stop, police said.

An officer noticed he had what appeared to be large wad of money in his pocket, the complaint said.

According to the complaint, Boyd told the officers: “You can look. There is no police money in there.”

Investigators said none of the money they used for the drug buy was among the cash in his pocket.

Officers were able to find some of the money when they showed bank employees a photo of Boyd and searched the cash drawers used by the tellers, the complaint said.

A police dog from New Kensington was brought in to follow the path Boyd took after getting out of the vehicle, the complaint said.

The dog found a piece of paper towel in the alley that was wrapped around a baggie filled with numerous multicolored pills totaling 13.9 grams along with a bag containing 0.84 grams of crack cocaine, police said.

Police said the pills were the same as the ones found inside the vehicle and tested positive for the presence of fentanyl.

Video from a security camera in the alley shows Boyd concealing the items underneath a Crown Royal whiskey bottle, the complaint said.


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