Three Plead Guilty in Large-Scale Marijuana Trafficking Operation
| U.S. Attorney’s Office January 13, 2010 |
Acting United States Attorney Robert S. Cessar announced today, January 13, 2010, that one resident of Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania and two Canadian citizens have pleaded guilty in federal court to a charge of conspiracy to distribute marijuana.
Giacinto Rocco Derenzo, age 29, of Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania; Gordon Sample, age 39, of Oshawa, Ontario, Canada; and Evan Wilfred Thomas, age 56, of Ohsweken, Ontario, Canada, all pleaded guilty to one count before United States District Judge Nora Barry Fischer.
In connection with the guilty pleas, Assistant United States Attorney Gregory J. Nescott advised the court that beginning in 2004 and continuing through July 2008, a Canadian drug trafficking group began smuggling 300-pound loads of high-grade, hydroponic marijuana across the border into the United States, hidden within legitimate commercial cargo. The marijuana was destined for the Pittsburgh area and at least six cities in other states. The marijuana wholesaled for $2,000 per pound or more, with the retail, or “street”, value being several multiples of that.
Millions of dollars in cash were sent back to Canada from Western Pennsylvania, with several shipments of drug proceeds being intercepted and seized by agents before the money could be smuggled into Canada. Cash seizures included approximately $225,000 in Pittsburgh in February 2008; $222,000 in Niagara Falls, New York in June 2008; and $660,000 in Allegheny County in July 2008.
Thomas functioned as a cash courier, Derenzo assisted at the Western Pennsylvania end, and Sample drove truckloads of marijuana over the border into the U.S., including a load of 272 pounds seized in March 2008, in Buffalo, New York.
Thomas and Sample will be sentenced on May 27, 2010, and Derenzo on June 3, 2010.
Fifteen individuals were indicted in this case; eight citizens of the United States and seven Canadians. Three remain in Canada, contesting extradition, with the others awaiting court appearances in Pittsburgh.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration (Pittsburgh and Buffalo), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and Cleveland), the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Greater Toronto Area Drug Section, the Asian Organized Crime Task Force of Ontario, and the Canada Border Services Agency, along with the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation, United States Postal Inspection Service, the Pennsylvania State Police, and the City of Pittsburgh Police conducted the investigation that led to the prosecution of Giacinto Rocco Derenzo, Gordon Sample, and Evan Wilfred Thomas.