South Side gang leader sentenced to 15 years for drugs

A federal judge on Wednesday admonished a South Side gang leader for destroying families and lives by distributing “astonishing quantities” of heroin and fentanyl and sent him to prison for 15 years.

Christopher Highsmith, 29, leader of the Darccide/Smash 44 drug ring, was “personally responsible” for dealing between 1,000 to 3,000 kilos of heroin and fentanyl, U.S. District Judge William Stickman IV said.

“There is no question, Mr. Highsmith, that you were the ringleader of a very serious drug conspiracy in and around Pittsburgh’s South Side,” he said in a video sentencing. “You were the ringleader of a very large conspiracy.”

The judge also said Highsmith, as a drug user himself, should know better than anyone the damage his dealing caused.

“You should understand the shackles that drug addiction puts on people,” the judge told him.

The 15-year term was worked out in a deal between Highsmith’s lawyer, R. Damien Schorr, and the U.S. attorney’s office. He could have received up to life in prison and a $20 million fine.

The judge told him he’ll still be young when he gets out and said he hopes Highsmith chooses the right direction next time.

Highsmith pleaded guilty in 2019 to conspiracy to distribute heroin and fentanyl and possession of heroin.

The FBI-led Greater Pittsburgh Safe Streets Task Force initiated an investigation in 2017 targeting the gang with wiretaps, surveillance, controlled buys and interdiction.

Taps of cellphones revealed that Highsmith was the leader in distributing drugs to both wholesalers and retail customers, mostly in the South Side

neighborhoods but also across the region. The sheer amount of drugs, up to 3,000 kilos, makes the ring one of the largest ever prosecuted in Western Pennsylvania.

Asked by the judge if he wanted to say anything, Highsmith shook his head no.

Neither party offered much argument either way for a sentence since it had been agreed to earlier as part of a deal.

But Mr. Schorr did say his client had suffered from a “horrific” childhood surrounded by violence and poverty. Highsmith started using marijuana at age 15 and later became an abuser of prescription painkillers. Mr. Schorr said Highsmith also suffers from mental health problems, as do his mother and father.

He asked that his client be allowed to participate in a prison drug treatment program and learn a trade behind bars so when he gets out he can “move forward and do something positive.”

Mr. Schorr, Assistant U.S. Attorney Carolyn Bloch and the judge all agreed the 15-year term was an appropriate amount of time for Highsmith.

But Mr. Schorr also noted that it may not make much difference in combating the drug trade.

“Whether it will deter others from committing the same type of crime is open to question,” he wrote in a sentencing memo. “No matter how long Mr. Highsmith is incarcerated, the drug-using population in this region will endure. Undoubtedly others have already moved to fill the void left by his arrest.”