Pubdate: Thu, 25 Jul 2002 Source: Valley News Dispatch (PA) Copyright: 2002 The Tribune-Review Publishing Co. Contact: http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/valleynewsdispatch/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2285 Author: Chuck Biedka DRUGS IN YOUR TOWN Capt. Jack Plaisted of the Butler police was surprised when a pistol reported stolen in the city turned up less than two months later in an attempted homicide in Austin, Texas. "Then I learned that drugs were involved," he said. For police, it was just another case of the long reach now seen in the drug and gun trade. Increasingly, investigators say, the so-called "local drug dealer" is becoming a thing of the past. In the Valley and surrounding region, even street-level dealers travel widely. From the inner city to rural country roads and across state lines - even across the country - drug dealers are expanding their territories and client bases. Valley and outside traffickers sell heroin, crack and other drugs along city streets and in suburbs and rural areas, and they steal, trade and sell guns. Users steal from friends and family, and break into stores and houses for money or anything that can be sold for quick cash. They also trade guns or sex to get drugs. Increasingly, Valley traffickers - mostly a loose confederation of people who sometimes work together - are buying and selling drugs well outside of their home territories. If the dealers had a single business card, it might very well read, "Have drugs, will travel" and give a cell-phone number or e-mail address. During a 16-month study, the Valley News Dispatch talked with addicts, counselors, police officers, federal agents and drug-trend analysts to ask about home-grown traffickers who, at times, do business throughout the country. According to police and court records, the desire for more money sends small-town dealers throughout the Valley - and places such as Philadelphia, New York, Texas, Arizona and parts of West Virginia and Ohio - as well as sections of Pittsburgh known for drugs and guns. If the risk is right, dealers will travel hundreds of miles, or send assistants, to buy from suppliers, public records claim. All the way to Texas On March 14, 2001, a Butler man told police someone took his .40- caliber semi-automatic pistol. Federal agents believe the gun likely was taken to Pittsburgh or somewhere in the Valley before it was used in the Austin shooting. The victim, a reputed Austin drug dealer, survived. Two men with close ties to the Valley are charged with trying to kill him when he refused to buy drugs from them. Jordan M. Greenlee, 20, of Austin - but who has stayed in New Kensington - and James P. "Will" Edwards, 20, of New Ken-sington were arrested in New Kensington for the Austin shooting. Greenlee and Edwards face "attempted capital murder" and related charges in Texas' Travis County court. Greenlee also is accused of a shotgun robbery at an Austin convenience store. Edwards' attorney insists his client is falsely accused. The men's trial was postponed several times and now is scheduled for no earlier than next month, a Travis County prosecutor said. Arrest reports allege the case has more ties to the Valley than the hometowns of the accused. A witness told police an Arnold woman and her associate paid him to drive Greenlee and Edwards to Texas in a rented car. Austin police looking for Greenlee and Edwards found the rental car and its driver. According to a police affidavit, police found the car's rental receipt in the glove box. The receipt was signed by "Angel Hensley." Police also found drugs and another pistol hidden in the car. New Kensington police think Angel L. Hensley, 25, of 1350 Third Ave., Arnold, paid for the the car and driver and sent the men to Austin. The associate is Kyle "Face" Harrison of New Kensington. No charges have been filed against Hensley or Harrison in the Austin case, and Hensley's attorney, Dante Bertani of Greensburg, steadfastly denies the accusations. Bertani represents Hensley on a separate charge of hindering prosecution when the FBI arrested Cleveland fugitive Larry Weathersby in her Arnold house last week. Hensley also is accused of illegally possessing a handgun during a drug raid in 2001 at a house near Latrobe. Bertani said the FBI has twice talked with Hensley concerning a drug- related abduction of two women and a man last May along the 200 block of Fifth Avenue, New Kensington. Hensley knows the three, one of whom is Harrison's sister, but that's it, Bertani said. Two Penn Hills men have been arrested, and the FBI and local police are looking for other suspects. Central Westmoreland, too Numerous Valley residents have been arrested for selling drugs in central and southern Westmoreland County. "We're seeing people from New Kensington show up in Derry and Latrobe," said Westmoreland County Detective Terry Kuhns, a former New Kensington police officer. "They move into rural areas because of lack of competition, and they can intimidate people by saying they're connected," Kuhns said. "Some people in rural areas just don't know any better." There are many other examples of Valley drug interests spreading their wings. Last summer and fall, the U.S. District Court in Wheeling, W.Va., prosecuted a drug dealer with Valley connections and almost a dozen others, said Fawn E. Thomas, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in Wheeling. Last October, Jerome Allen, 24, also known as "D.L." and "Jason Jones" of Longvue Road, New Kensington, pleaded guilty to selling cocaine. He received a 16-year prison term and fine for his role in the West Virgina case. The New Kensington Police Department assisted the Ohio Valley Drug & Violent Crime Task Force that draws officers from federal and state law enforcement agencies and local police departments, according to U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent Robert Manchis. Valley officers also helped with the investigation of some of the others, from Cleveland and Pontiac, Mich., who were convicted following the same grand jury investigation. Closer to home, Westmoreland and Armstrong county prosecutors believe a failed drug robbery ended with a Kiski Township man being shot and beaten to death last summer. Three 18-year-old men, who were 17 at the time of the killing, and three women are charged in the homicide of Larry Dunmire, 48, of Sugar Hollow Road. The coroner said he died late June 14, 2001, or early the next day. Prosecutors believe one of the women told the boys that Dunmire had drugs and money, and Dunmire was killed when he fought back. His body, hands tied with a nylon dog leash, was found along a road in Bell Township near the burned-out hulk of his van. The pistol used to kill Dunmire, federal authorities said, was stolen from a Harmar gun dealer in February 2001. Supply follows demand The expansion of drug dealers' territories is a result of suburban demand, said Ernest Batista, who directed the federal Drug Enforcement Agency office at Pittsburgh in the 1990s. Dealers see a large number of suburban users driving into urban areas to buy drugs "so they begin to realize there is a market for it, and they go to rural areas," he said. Cocaine networks exist, so most dealers are "piggybacking Colombian heroin on the cocaine distribution routes," Batista said. The result of the cheaper, snortable Colombian heroin is a "bedroom community drug that is getting the all-American kids addicted." Heroin is rapidly pushing aside cocaine and other drugs as the major threat, said Victor Joseph, a Valley native who supervises the state attorney general's drug task force for the region. "You'd be surprised. It's everywhere in the suburbs," he said. "It's in Clairton, Bethel Park, Blairsville, Rostraver and California. It's in your area." - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom