2 days ago
Pennsylvania man sentenced to 23 years in prison for drugs, money laundering
PITTSBURGH, Pa. (WTAJ) — A Pennsylvania man was sentenced to more than two decades in federal court after a drug trafficking and money laundering operation spanning from the Pittsburgh area to California.
Andrew Beatty, 41, of Crafton was sentenced to 23 years, followed by 5 years of supervised release by US District Judge Cathy Bissoon after an extensive investigation found Beatty was the leader of a large-scale Pittsburgh-area drug trafficking organization with associates in California assisting the operation.
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), along with multiple federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, uncovered that Beatty and associates would coordinate shipments of heroin and cocaine hidden within vehicles that were then transported via commercial car carriers from California to Pennsylvania.
In December of 2013 by DEA agents and the Ohio Highway Patrol conducted a traffic stop of a car-carrier truck that housed a car that Beatty had shipped to the Mexican organization in California. After a search of that car, $130,000 was seized. According to the authorities, after that incident, Beatty would go on to use a Colombian broker to arrange the transport of money to the Mexican organization. What the associates were not aware of was that the broker was an undercover DEA agent. That agent would go on to receive almost $225,000 each time from Beatty or his associates.
Throughout early 2014, multiple searches occurred of cars as well as storage lockers of Beatty's that found heroin, cocaine, money, and guns.
Beatty was convicted on multiple counts of conspiracy to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine and a kilogram or more of heroin and conspiracy to launder drug trafficking proceeds.
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