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Ex-Beaver Falls High School coach set to plead in cocaine case

PITTSBURGH — A former western Pennsylvania assistant high school football coach is set to plead guilty to his role in a cocaine pipeline from Texas.

Carlos Cleckley, who formerly coached at Beaver Falls High School, is scheduled to change his not guilty plea Thursday afternoon before a federal judge in Pittsburgh.

That will make Cleckley the third of four defendants to plead guilty in the case.

Thirty-six-year-old Adrian Taylor, of Beaver Falls, and the alleged supplier, 39-year-old Vincent D. Middlebrooks, of Houston, have already pleaded guilty. Authorities say Middlebrooks supplied more than more than 150 pounds of cocaine since 2009, and that the ring was responsible for most of the cocaine sold in Beaver County, just northwest of Pittsburgh, during that time.

A fourth defendant still plans to stand trial.