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Press Release
Press Release
PITTSBURGH – On April 24, 2017, Khyree Gardenhire was convicted of conspiring to engage in heroin trafficking, Acting United States Attorney Soo C. Song announced today.
Gardenhire, age 20, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, pled guilty on the first day of trial in the courtroom of United States District Court Judge Nora Barry Fischer. In support of the guilty plea, the prosecution informed Judge Fischer that, for several years leading up to May 2015, Lance Gardenhire, Khyree Gardenhire’s father, led a heroin trafficking organization in Western Pennsylvania. The organization was centered in and around the Beltzhoover area of Pittsburgh. Khyree Gardenhire admitted as part of his guilty plea to participating in a conspiracy to distribute heroin, and to being responsible for the distribution of more than 700 grams of heroin.
Judge Fischer scheduled sentencing for Khyree Gardenhire to occur on August 30, 2017, at 1:30 p.m. The law provides for a total sentence of up to forty years in prison, a fine of up to $5,000,000, or both. Under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, the actual sentence imposed is based upon the seriousness of the offense and the prior criminal history, if any, of the defendant.
Assistant United States Attorneys Rachael L. Dizard and Craig W. Haller prosecuted this case on behalf of the United States.
The Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police led the multi-agency investigation of this case that also included the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the Department of Homeland Security/Homeland Security Investigations, the United States Marshals Service, the Pennsylvania State Police, the Scott Township Police Department, the Munhall Police Department, the Baldwin Police Department, and the Pleasant Hills Police Department. The investigation was funded by the federal Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force Program (OCDETF). The OCDETF program supplies critical federal funding and coordination that allows federal and state agencies to work together to successfully identify, investigate, and prosecute major interstate and international drug trafficking organizations and other criminal enterprises.