'Top dog' pleads guilty for role in Westmoreland heroin trafficking ring

A Jeannette man who prosecutors described as the “top dog” of a multi-million dollar heroin trafficking ring that operated throughout Westmoreland County in 2017 has pleaded guilty to drug and conspiracy charges.

Chauncy Bray, 32, has been behind bars since his arrest five years ago, when police said he and at least two others brought in at least 20 bricks of heroin weekly into the county for distribution.

During an eight-month period in late 2016 and early 2017, Bray served as a primary drug distributor in the county, according to court records. Police said drugs were delivered from out-of-state to Bray at the Garden Inn in New Stanton.

Investigators said they used a previous drug ring operated by Bray before an arrest in 2012 as a road map to investigate this heroin distribution operation in 2017.

Bray pleaded guilty in 2014 and was sentenced to three to six years in a state prison, followed by 10 years of probation, after his arrest in the earlier case.

Bray, who has been in jail in lieu of a $1 million bond since early 2017, pleaded guilty this week to operating a corrupt organization, conspiracy and nine related felony drug charges. Common Pleas Court Judge Tim Krieger will sentence Bray in about three months.

Bray has cooperated with police in subsequent investigations. He testified during a trial last summer of a former Harrisburg woman accused of being a drug mule for James Moore, a man police said was Bray’s former drug partner who is serving a 40-year prison sentence related to a conviction in 2012.

In that case, Bray testified that Sade Franklin, 34, had befriend Moore and agreed to deliver drugs from New Jersey to Bray in Westmoreland County as part of a plot to raise money for the hiring of a lawyer to work toward Moore’s release from prison.

Bray also testified against Moore at his first trial in 2013.

Moore, 35, pleaded guilty this week to operating a corrupt organization, conspiracy and drug offenses in connection with his role in the drug transactions that involved Franklin and Bray. Moore was sentenced by Krieger to serve 5 to 15 years in prison. The judge ordered that sentence to run concurrently to the 20- t0 40-year prison sentence Moore is serving.

Franklin was convicted of conspiracy and drug charges and was sentenced to serve one year of house arrest in Georgia and four years on probation.