Police say New Kensington man bought cocaine to resell from busted drug ring

New Kensington police accused a man of selling cocaine he bought from members of a major drug ring that was dismantled when federal agents arrested 57 people this spring.

Larry Weathersby, 44, of the 800 block of Seventh Street in New Kensington was charged with four counts of criminal use of a communications facility and two counts of possession of drugs with the intent to deliver, which are felonies. He also was charged with four counts of buying a controlled substance.

Weathersby was being detained in the Westmoreland County jail in lieu of a $75,000 cash bond, according to court records. He faces a preliminary hearing July 27 before District Judge Frank J. Pallone Jr.

New Kensington police charged Weathersby on June 21 in connection with an investigation launched in December 2018 by the FBI dubbed Operation Lake Effect.

The investigation stretched over four years across the country.

It resulted in the arrests of 57 people, the seizure of more than 673 pounds of fentanyl-laced fake prescription pills and more than 400 pounds of methamphetamine, the acting U.S. Attorney in Pittsburgh announced March 3.

FBI agents, assisted by state and local police, conducted a wide-ranging series of drug raids in the Alle-Kiski Valley as part of the operation.

Police wrote in a criminal complaint charging Weathersby that wiretaps were used to intercept four calls he made last year to buy cocaine from members of the drug ring between July 7 and Sept. 17.

Investigators said he typically bought between $300 and $700 worth of the drug at a time to resell, the complaint said.

Two of the people he dealt with were Joseph Busch, 43, of New Kensington and Kareem Middlebrook, 41, of Creekside, Indiana County, according to investigators.

Police said Weathersby identified himself during the telephone conversations he had, and the phone number he used was the same one he gave police who were filing a report in 2022 for an unrelated matter with which he was involved.

Busch and Middlebrook were arrested by federal agents during a sweep in early March.

The investigation began with street-level drug activity in 2018 in Johnstown and grew to include drug trafficking in Phoenix, Cleveland, Minneapolis, Seattle, Las Vegas and parts of Mexico.

Of the 57 people arrested during the raids, 24 were taken into custody in Western Pennsylvania, including 10 from the Alle-Kiski Valley. Another 21 were arrested in Arizona, and dozens more were charged in state court.

Investigators said agents conducted more than 50 controlled buys and used wiretaps to reveal that a large portion of the drugs were being sourced from Mexico through Arizona.

In addition to the drugs that were confiscated, agents seized more than $600,000 cash, nine vehicles and 47 firearms, including fully automatic weapons.