Texas man pleads guilty to supplying cocaine ring

The Texas supplier for a Pittsburgh cocaine ring pleaded guilty Tuesday as his trial was about to begin in U.S. District Court.

Dante Lozano, 41, of Brownsville, Texas, pleaded to conspiracy to distribute cocaine and conspiracy to launder the proceeds as part of a case that involved five Monongahela Valley residents and several others from Texas who have all pleaded guilty.

Federal prosecutors said the ring operated from 2011 to 2015, during which Lozano mailed 100 cocaine packages from Brownsville to Jeffrey Turner and April Racan in Elizabeth and McKeesport.

Turner and Racan sold the drugs to others in the region and the proceeds were shipped back to Lozano.

During one period in 2012, two other members of the conspiracy, Brian Kettering of Charleroi and William Coulson, a McKeesport native living in Florida, also used drug money to buy money orders at the direction of Turner and Racan and sent them to a Dairy Queen in Texas managed by another ring member, Daniel Cosme.

Cosme turned the money over to Lozano, who used Hugo Balboa and others to launder it by depositing it in various bank accounts.

Joseph Borrelli, at the time the postmaster in West Newton, also helped the conspiracy by providing addresses for vacant houses where the coke packages could be sent.

When the packages arrived at his post office, they were diverted to Turner and Racan.

Lozano faces at least a decade in federal prison and could get up to life when he is sentenced June 22 by U.S. District Judge Arthur Schwab.