McKees Rocks woman gets time served, 5 years' probation for role in cocaine ring linked to GBK gang

A McKees Rocks woman who sold cocaine for members of a street gang in Pittsburgh’s West End has been sentenced to time served and five years of probation, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

Mardeja Chapple, 26, was convicted of conspiring to distribute more than 280 grams of crack cocaine — or nearly 10 ounces — as part of a drug ring linked to the gang known as the Greenway Boy Killas, or GBK, Acting U.S. Attorney Stephen R. Kaufman said.

Chapple was among more than two dozen nabbed as part of an FBI-led wiretap investigation into the GBK between November 2017 and June 2018.

A federal grand jury indicted 28 people linked to the gang of conspiring to sell large amounts of crack cocaine as well as powdered cocaine and heroin.

More than a dozen of those who were charged have since pleaded guilty, and some have been sentenced to several years behind bars, court records show.

RELATED: Pittsburgh man gets 5 years in prison for selling cocaine in GBK drug ring

Senior U.S. District Judge Arthur J. Schwab described Chapple’s sentence as “sufficient but not greater than necessary to achieve the goals of sentencing.”

Assistant U.S. attorneys Tonya Sulia Goodman and Yvonne M. Saadi prosecuted the case with help from the FBI and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.

Local law enforcement assisted, including the Allegheny County Sheriff’s Office, Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office, state troopers and police from McKees Rocks, Pittsburgh, Robinson, Stowe and Wilkinsburg.

The investigation was funded by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, which provides money for federal and state agencies to work together on cases involving major drug trafficking and criminal enterprises.

RELATED: 28 face drug charges after FBI wiretap probe into Greenway Boy Killas gang