NEW CASTLE, Pa. — The FBI Pittsburgh office announced Friday that it arrested five people in a suspected drug trafficking ring at three different locations across New Castle.
One of those locations was along Oak and Raymond Streets early Friday morning.
So far, three of the five suspects have been identified as Dion Mercer, Latina Lindsey and Evans Lindsey.
“They are not upstanding citizens,” said Richard Evanchec, FBI Pittsburgh special agent in charge.
This investigation goes back nearly two years.
“In 2024, large amounts of cocaine and fentanyl were being trafficked into Lawrence County,” Evanchec said.
The FBI said state investigators found the five suspects traveled to other states — including Michigan and Texas — to get large amounts of those drugs and used what they call good old-fashioned police work on Friday’s bust.
That includes things like using confidential informants, anonymous tips and undercover officers.
“Typically, you start with a low-level individual, and then you continue to move up the ladder,” Lawrence County District Attorney Joshua Lamancusa said. “And in this particular case, they moved all the way up to the ladder to several sources of supply, which obviously cannot be discussed today.”
The FBI said it seized more than $23,000 in cash, seven guns, cocaine and 28 grams of fentanyl.
According to the DEA, it only takes two milligrams of fentanyl to kill someone.
That means this was enough fentanyl to potentially kill 14,000 people.
“That quantity, frankly, could have killed hundreds of our kids in Lawrence County,” Evanchec said.
According to the grand jury indictment and other court records, Dion Mercer was sentenced to prison in 2007 on federal cocaine charges. He was also sentenced for drug crimes in 1997.
Channel 11’s Andrew Havranek asked U.S. Attorney Troy Rivetti about that Friday afternoon.
“The message needs to be: our office is committed to targeting recidivist offenders. Because if you’ve been involved in large-scale drug trafficking before and you’re right back at it, that’s a problem,” Rivetti said.
And, the FBI has a warning for anyone from out of state hoping to take the place of this drug trafficking ring.
“FBI Pittsburgh, our federal, state, and local partners, will expend every resource and travel every mile to track you down and bring you to justice,” Evanchec said.
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