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Cocaine ringleader gets 10 years in prison
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One of the ringleaders of a loose organization that supplied cocaine to the Mon Valley was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years and one month in prison.
Brian K. Boyd, 40, of Penn Hills, was caught in a late 2010 roundup of 42 people charged with conspiring to sell cocaine. A raid on his home uncovered a kilogram of cocaine and packaging material in his workout room, and $88,000 and a gun in his bedroom, Assistant U.S. Attorney Barbara Swartz said at the sentencing hearing.
"This man who stands before you as the head of this conspiratorial group deserves a sentence higher" than the 10-year mandatory minimum, Ms. Swartz told U.S. District Judge Gustave Diamond.
Judge Diamond, though, noted that Mr. Boyd had only one prior drug conviction, from a 1999 arrest, and added that if 10 years doesn't deter him from further wrongdoing, nothing will. Boyd said he was sorry.
"I made a dumb decision and a dumb choice, and I'll pay for it, but I don't want to pay for it for the rest of my life," he said. "It seems like everybody used me as a scapegoat."
Boyd pleaded guilty in March to conspiring to sell more than five kilograms of cocaine, and to being a felon in possession of a firearm.
First Published July 28, 2012 12:00 am
