FBI uncovers coast-to-coast drug ring that used RV; five arrested

Federal marshals hauled five men to jail Monday on charges of transporting more than 100 pounds of cocaine from California to Penn Hills in an RV for distribution here.

FBI agents and police serving warrants on Sunday said they found 52 kilograms of cocaine, 85 pounds of marijuana and two guns in the recreational vehicle after it arrived at the Penn Hills home of Jamie Lightfoot Jr., 25, the son of a convicted drug dealer by the same name serving 14 years in federal prison.

A three-month investigation by the FBI and state troopers culminated in the arrests of Mr. Lightfoot along with four alleged cohorts from out of state: Don Juan Mendoza, 38, of Lawrenceville, Ga.; Troy Rowe, 28, of Columbia, S.C.; and Pedro Alejandro Blanco and Brian Powell, both 39 and from Jacksonville, Fla.

According to an affidavit, law officers were watching when the RV drove up to the home of Mr. Lightfoot on Harvest Drive and parked on the street.

The RV is owned by Mendoza’s mother, Marina Mendoza of Jacksonville, according to the FBI. Her son, a convicted felon, arrived shortly after in a Chevrolet Tahoe.

The accused conspirators then backed the RV into the driveway, after which agents said Mr. Powell and Mr. Rowe carried luggage from the vehicle to a waiting car and drove away. Agents followed them to a hotel and arrested them.

Other officers executed a search warrant, signed Oct. 27 by a federal magistrate in Pittsburgh, on the Harvest Drive house.

The FBI said Mr. Powell, Mr. Rowe and Mr. Blanco had driven the vehicle from Los Angeles to Penn Hills, leaving Friday evening and arriving a bit after noon on Sunday.

A search of the house turned up steroids and “hundred of thousands of dollars,” the FBI

said. After a dog alerted them to drugs in the RV, agents towed the vehicle to the FBI’s office on the South Side and impounded it.

Inside, they said they found the cocaine, marijuana and guns under bunk beds.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisa Pupo Lenihan will hold detention hearings Tuesday for Mr. Lightfoot and Mr. Powell, who works for Amazon in some capacity, according to his lawyer.

Mendoza and the other two will have detention hearings Thursday.