'Upper-level trafficker' gets 8-16 years after pleading guilty to bringing drugs from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh area
HARRISBURG, Pa. (KDKA) -- A drug trafficker will spend at least 8 years in prison after pleading guilty to bringing more than 1,000 bricks of heroin and fentanyl from Philadelphia to the Pittsburgh area, the Pennsylvania attorney general announced on Tuesday.
Quinzal Powell, 33, pleaded guilty on Monday in Butler County Court to felony possession with intent to deliver. According to the plea deal, he'll serve 8 to 16 years in prison.
Investigators said Powell was found with more than 1,100 bags of fentanyl when he was pulled over and searched on Oct. 15, 2020.
The attorney general's office said Powell brought several shipments to Butler County in 2020 for distribution by two other people who were charged in a bust two years ago. Powell trafficked more than 1,000 bricks, each containing several bundles, of heroin and fentanyl from Philadelphia to the Pittsburgh area, officials said.
"This upper-level trafficker traveled many miles to distribute bricks of fentanyl, valuing personal profits over the lives of Pennsylvanians dying every day from this extremely lethal substance," Attorney General Michelle Henry said. "This case is another testament to the power of law enforcement working together to remove predatory dealers from our neighborhoods."
Powell was one of five people charged in connection with a drug operation that then-Attorney General Josh Shapiro said trafficked an estimated kilo of heroin and fentanyl to Butler County with a street value of up to $400,000.
Desirae Feitl, one of Powell's cohorts who authorities said distributed the drugs, pleaded guilty to one count of felony possession with intent to deliver and was sentenced to 6 1/2 to 16 years last December. The case against one of the other distributors is pending.
