Retired city firefighter pleads guilty to federal drug conspiracy charges

A retired Pittsburgh firefighter arrested in 2017 on charges that he helped the reputed leader of a drug conspiracy to distribute Florida cocaine to customers in Pittsburgh admitted his guilt Thursday in federal court.

Walter Amman, 68, of Brookline pleaded guilty to conspiracy and possession counts and will be sentenced in June.

A money-laundering and drug conspiracy case against his partner, Richard Wright, 77, of Banksville, is pending.

The pair were the targets of an investigation by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the IRS that became public in 2016 when prosecutors seized Mr. Wright’s Daytona Beach, Fla., house. Agents said he and his wife, Michele Connell, bought it in 2015 with money from his drug operation, which they said he had run for two decades.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Ross Lenhardt said the investigation revealed that Mr. Wright and Mr. Amman conspired to bring cocaine from Florida to Pittsburgh, where it was broken down and processed for customers at Mr. Wright’s garage near his house. Some of it was also cooked into crack.

Mr. Amman admitted to being part of the conspiracy from sometime after 2011 until his arrest.

The investigation, which included surveillance of Mr. Wright’s property with a pole camera, culminated in raids on Jan. 11, 2017, at Mr. Wright’s house, his garage and at Mr. Amman’s residence.

According to detention hearing testimony by Tom Dunlevy, a DEA task force officer, the searches turned up $400,000 in cash at Mr. Wright’s garage. Agents found another $40,000 in his house along with an AK-47 and other weapons, one of them registered to Mr. Amman.

At Mr. Amman’s house, they found cocaine and cash.

Asked by U.S. District Judge Mark Hornak how he pleaded, Mr. Amman said, “Guilty.”

Mr. Wright and Mr. Amman were indicted in 2017 along with Ms. Connell. Her case, in which she is charged with laundering drug proceeds, is pending.