A former resident of Erie, Pennsylvania, has been sentenced in federal court to 70 months in prison on his conviction of violating federal narcotics laws, Acting United States Attorney Troy Rivetti announced today.

United States District Judge Susan Paradise Baxter imposed the sentence on Peter Daniel Gambill, Jr., 25.

According to information presented to the court, Gambill and others engaged in a conspiracy to distribute multi-kilogram quantities of cocaine, approximately 1.7 kilograms of blue fentanyl pills (an estimated 15,000 pills), and methamphetamine within the Western District of Pennsylvania from in and around February 2022 and continuing thereafter to in or around May 2022.

Assistant United States Attorney Paul S. Sellers prosecuted this case on behalf of the government.

This prosecution is a result of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) investigation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles high-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten communities throughout the United States. OCDETF uses a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.

Acting United States Attorney Rivetti commended the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Erie Area Gang Law Enforcement (EAGLE), Safe Streets Task Force, which is comprised of investigators from the FBI, the Erie Police Department, the Pennsylvania State Police, the Oil City Police Department, the Titusville Police Department, the Franklin Police Department, and the United States Postal Service Office of Inspector General, in coordination with the United States Postal Inspection Service, the Internal Revenue Service, the Erie County Detectives, and the Millcreek Police Department for the investigation leading to the successful prosecution of Gambill.

The investigation was also conducted in association with the Northwest Pennsylvania Drug Initiative which was formed following Erie County’s designation as a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) in 2021. The HIDTA program was created by Congress in 1988 to coordinate and assist Federal, State, and Local law enforcement agencies in addressing regional drug threats with the purpose of reducing drug trafficking and drug production in the United States. The Northwest Pennsylvania Drug Initiative coordinates personnel and resources between multiple agencies including the Pennsylvania State Police, Federal Burau of Investigation, Erie Police Department, Erie County District Attorney’s office, Erie County Detectives, United States Postal Inspection Service, the EAGLE Task Force, and other participating agencies.

Original source can be found here.