A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the reputed ringleader of an interstate conspiracy shipping large amounts of cocaine to Penn Hills to be held pending indictment by grand jury.
"I conclude he's a danger to the community and a flight risk, and he'll be held without bail," U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Mitchell told a lawyer for Don Juan Mendoza, 38, a repeat felon from Florida now living in suburban Atlanta.
The U.S. attorney's office said Mendoza is at the center of a ring transporting massive amounts of cocaine from Los Angeles to the Penn Hills home of Jamie Lightfoot Jr., who was the subject of a three-month wiretap by a Pittsburgh FBI task force.
Mr. Lightfoot, Mendoza and three other men were arrested Nov. 5 after agents and Pennsylvania state troopers said members of the conspiracy arrived at Mr. Lightfoot's house in an RV hauling 52 kilograms of cocaine and 85 pounds of marijuana. The vehicle also contained an AK-47 and a 9 mm handgun.
According to agents and prosecutors, Mr. Lightfoot is the region's largest cocaine dealer and received regular shipments in the recreational vehicle and a distinctive Mercedes Sprinter van.
Both vehicles are owned by Mendoza's mother, Marina, of Jacksonville, Fla., who was convicted with her son and husband of dealing drugs out of their Florida home in the mid-2000s. Agents tracking the drug shipments to Penn Hills in recent months have come to call the sprinter van the "Sno-Cold" vehicle because it was imprinted with that name and images of Charlene Mendoza, Don Juan's wife and a rap performer who uses that stage name. She has not been charged.
Barry Zone, Mendoza's Manhattan lawyer who also represented him in Jacksonville, argued that there is no direct evidence that his client was involved with the current drug conspiracy.
He said Mendoza and his wife own a series of hair salons in Atlanta and are law-abiding citizens. He said Mendoza's only recent infraction of the law was in November 2013. While he was at the home of a known felon, Royal Jerome Jackson, in Jacksonville in violation of his probation, gunmen shot both men, killing Jackson and wounding Mendoza.
Mr. Zone asked that his client be released on a $500,000 bond with electronic monitoring in Atlanta.
But Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim Lanni said Mendoza is a major national drug trafficker and a danger to any community where he resides. He said he has a history of drug dealing with his family in Jacksonville and his $5 million net worth is the product of drug money laundered through the hair businesses.
In addition, he said Mendoza is facing a mandatory life term in prison if he's convicted.
"There is every incentive to flee," he said.
Judge Mitchell agreed, saying conviction is likely.
The U.S. attorney's office has 30 days to bring an indictment after a complaint is filed.
Mr. Lightfoot and the others charged in the case — Troy Rowe, 28, of Columbia, S.C., and Brian Powell and Pedro Blanco, both 39 and from Jacksonville — have all been ordered held.
Torsten Ove: tove@post-gazette.com.
First Published: November 15, 2017, 10:06 p.m.
