PITTSBURGH — A 39-year-old Spring Garden man who authorities referred to as a former drug kingpin was sentenced to 10 years in prison Tuesday.
Donald Lyles was sentenced in Pittsburgh federal court Tuesday to 10 years in prison and eight years of probation after he pleaded guilty in July to two counts of heroin possession.
Lyles did not make any statements during the hearing.
“There is nothing to say,” said Lyles’ attorney, Gary Zimmerman.
Sentenced to a mandatory life sentence in 2003, Lyles was once the top lieutenant in a Western Pennsylvania drug ring that sold more than 60 pounds of heroin and 300 pounds of cocaine in four years. He cooperated with drug investigators and walked out of federal prison in 2009.
In October 2012, Pittsburgh police arrested him for driving around with a stolen gun in his car. He pleaded guilty in February to violating his parole and was sentenced to the four months he had already spent in jail.
Lyles was out on bail pending a trial on the state gun charges when federal agents arrested him in April while in possession of about 250 grams of heroin and drug handling equipment.
Channel 11’s news exchange partners at TribLIVE contributed to this report.