New Castle Resident Sentenced to Five and a Half Years in Prison and Six Years of Supervised Release for Repeat Cocaine Offenses

PITTSBURGH, Pa. – A resident of New Castle, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to 66 months in federal prison for conspiring to distribute cocaine and cocaine base, and for distributing cocaine base within 1,000 feet of a school, while on federal supervised release for a prior cocaine base trafficking conviction, United States Attorney Eric G. Olshan announced today.

United States District Judge Cathy Bissoon imposed the sentence on Forrest Gilmore, 28, also ordering Gilmore to serve six years of supervised release following his prison sentence.

In pleading guilty in this case, Gilmore admitted responsibility for distributing 450 grams of cocaine and 25 grams of cocaine base/crack between June 2020 and June 2021 in the New Castle area. In a prior case, he previously was convicted and sentenced to 60 months in federal prison for trafficking cocaine base in the New Castle area. He was released from his prior federal prison sentence to supervised release in April 2020 and, within two months, started trafficking cocaine and cocaine base again in New Castle in violation of his release conditions and the United States Code.

Assistant United States Attorneys Benjamin C. Dobkin and Craig W. Haller prosecuted this case on behalf of the United States.

United States Attorney Olshan commended the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Pennsylvania State Police, the Lawrence County Drug Task Force, the Mercer County Drug Task Force, the New Castle Police Department, the Sharon Police Department, the Hermitage Police Department, and the Farrell Police Department for the investigation leading to the successful prosecution of Gilmore.

This prosecution is a result of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) investigation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles high-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten communities throughout the United States. OCDETF uses a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.