Most federal drug investigations last years and involve targets long-known to law enforcement.
The one against Verona car dealer Michael Oliver took a few weeks over the Christmas holidays and revealed a drug operation that no one knew about.
“He was under the radar for a long time,” said Pennsylvania State Trooper Frederick Gregg.
Oliver, 43, who lived in Wilkins and had several other addresses in Monroeville and Penn Hills, was sentenced in December to 10 years in federal prison.
On Friday, Trooper Gregg and two colleagues, Trooper Tom Fleisher and Cpl. Frank Konek, won an award for their work at the annual Law Enforcement Agency Directors ceremony at the University of Pittsburgh’s law school.
The awards, in their 19th year, honor performance by agents and police for investigations, most of them federal, across the region from Erie to West Virginia.
The case against Oliver started as many drug investigations do — with a traffic stop.
This one happened on Dec. 7, 2015, on Interstate 78 in Berks County, when Trooper Fleisher pulled over a rental car traveling from New Jersey to Pittsburgh. Inside were two men and 11 kilograms of cocaine.
The driver decided to cooperate and identified Oliver as a major cocaine dealer in Pittsburgh. He also said Oliver owed him money from a previous delivery. Troopers checked with other law officers and found that no one had ever heard of Oliver, owner of a car dealership, Millennium Auto Sales, on Allegheny River Boulevard and MTO Enterprises, a real estate rental company.
For a large-scale cocaine dealer in his 40s to have gone undetected is unusual, said Trooper Gregg.
“He was probably active for a long time,” he said. “He kept a low profile.”
Like many Pittsburgh drug dealers, he was supplied out of New Jersey. Troopers wired up the cooperating informant and used him to take delivery of the owed money from Oliver and broker a new deal to ship cocaine to him in Pittsburgh.
At a meeting in a Smallman Street apartment on Dec. 9, 2015, Oliver gave the informant $250,080. Two days later at a meeting in Monroeville, Oliver gave him another $79,885. The two set up one more meeting, for the shipment of cocaine, set for Jan. 14, 2016.
To sweeten the deal, the informant offered Oliver a price break for the shipment of $27,000 for a kilo as opposed to the usual price of $32,000.
Oliver paid the informant another $330,000 to secure the January shipment, which was for 50 kilos of cocaine to be delivered to the same Smallman Street apartment.
Troopers gave the informant a suitcase filled with four kilos of coke and another 46 kilos of fake cocaine.
Oliver led the informant into a bedroom where the informant opened his suitcase to show the drugs and Oliver placed stacks of cash on the bed.
Police had what they needed and pounced.
Troopers arrested Oliver and seized 500 grams of cocaine, 10,895 heroin stamp bags, $353,571 in cash, a cocaine press and two guns. In his car, they found another $34,920 in cash.
Trooper Gregg said the case was atypical in that it was such a quick-hit operation.
“This all happened in a matter of five weeks,” he said.
It was also during the Christmas holidays, so help from other agencies was minimal because so many people were off or away. The troopers worked with the state attorney general and the U.S. Attorney’s office, which ultimately took the case for federal prosecution.
A grand jury indicted Oliver in March 2016 and he pleaded guilty in August. His lawyers argued that he was a devoted father and legitimate business owner.
His criminal history was minimal, but his brushes with the law indicated his lifestyle. In May 2015 he tried to get on a plane at Pittsburgh International Airport with a gun in his bag on a trip to Miami. Police also noted that he had $20,000 in cash on him and some fancy watches, but he explained that he was the owner of a car dealership. Police took his gun, but they had nothing else on him and let him go.
In 1995, when he was 21, he had also been arrested by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in Florida on a cocaine trafficking charge, but that case was dismissed for lack of evidence.
Between age 21 and his early 40s, Oliver had no other run-ins with police.
Trooper Gregg said that although he did run two companies, he was a large-scale drug dealer. He said it was gratifying to put him out of business.
“He was significant,” he said. “This was a pretty good case.”
Award Winners
Matthew Regentin, ATF, and Det. Jason Costanzo, Allegheny County police. The two led the investigation of Stanley Patterson, charged with torching seven houses and a business in Carnegie and Scott in December 2015. The investigation also led to a second case in which Patterson was charged with shooting a firearms dealer in 2011.
Agent Michael Thoreson, FBI, along with FBI analysts Adam Rabak and Rebecca Hart, support technician Dawn Parnell, operations specialist Jessica Mullin and Assistant U.S. Attorney Christian Trabold. The team spearheaded Operation Dire Straits, which targeted a transnational organized crime group using stolen identities to obtain tax refunds.
Thomas Dominski, Department of Veterans Affairs. Agent Dominski of the Office of Inspector General in Pittsburgh investigated a veteran from Kentucky who faked being blind to obtain nearly $800,000 in VA benefits. He was convicted at trial in West Virginia.
Westmoreland County Deputy Sheriff Jack McLain, U.S. Marshals Service-Western PA Fugitive Task Force. Deputy McLain won for leading investigations that led to capturing several homicide suspects, including one caught in a "vehicle takedown" on the Fort Duquesne Bridge.
Daniel Soroczak, Allegheny County District Attorney's Office. An auto theft expert, Det. Soroczak won for investigations over the last nine years that resulted in the recovery of 394 stolen vehicles and the arrests of 232 people.
Tim Matson and Justin Susich, Pittsburgh police. Without backup, the officers responded to a home invasion on Dec. 5, 2016 in Homewood, forced their way into the home, captured one of several gunmen inside and chased off the other intruders.
Paul Bauer, IRS-Criminal Investigation. Agent Bauer won for his role in the payroll tax investigation of Iceoplex complex owner Steven Lynch, who was convicted at trial in U.S. District Court.
Dennis Martin, U.S. probation office. Probation Officer Martin investigated a child pornography defendant who had been released on probation and subsequently was discovered with new child porn that turned out to be recordings of the sexual abuse of two of his friend's children.
Michael Opferman of Homeland Security Investigations, Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Skirtich, paralegal Melissa Dojcak and investigator Lisa Fawcett, U.S. attorney's office. The team investigated Ajay Goel, Ameri-Source International and related companies accused of avoiding anti-dumping duties imposed on importation of small-diameter graphite electrodes made in China and used in steel-making. The entities paid a $3 million restitution settlement and Ameri-Source pled guilty to smuggling.
Vijay Nemani, DEA. Agent Nemani headed the investigation of two men who robbed two pharmacies and stole large quantities of oxycodone.
Randy Hayden, U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Inspector Hayden investigated several significant fraud cases, including a Ponzi scheme mail fraud case that cost 100 victims $8 million and an embezzler who stole $1 million.
Det. David Lincoln and officers Devin McGee and Joshua Robey, Pittsburgh police; Officer Steven Dawkin, Allegheny County Police, and Agent Francesco Vezio, DEA. The team investigated two men who were running a cocaine ring out of a luxury Downtown apartment building.
Romona Clark, U.S. probation. Assistant Deputy Chief Clark won for her leadership of the office during a career that began in 1998.
Jason Tarap, Allegheny County Sheriff's Office. Deputy Tarap won for his work in helping the elderly and children through various educational and grant initiatives.
The team award went to a group of agents and police who put together the cross-country drug investigation of Andre Saunders and Rodney Harris in Fayette County. The two were responsible for importing hundreds of kilos of cocaine and heroin from the West Coast into the Uniontown area and West Virginia. The team members were: Terrence Sweeney and Michael Evans, FBI; Cathy Wolf, postal inspection; Frank Konek, Frederick Gregg, Justin Duval, Kristen Beattie, Brett Massafra, state police; assistant U.S. attorneys Barbara Doolittle and Conor Lamb; and Steven Kontaxes of the Fayette County District Attorney's Office.
The special recognition award went to David Hickton, the former U.S. attorney, for his indictments of international cyber-criminals during his tenure.
First Published: January 28, 2017, 5:00 a.m.
