Mon Valley drug dealer convicted on federal charges
A Washington County man whom investigators called a drug kingpin in the Mon Valley was found guilty in federal court on charges he used illegal financial transactions to conceal money from his years of cocaine dealing.
A jury Friday convicted Daniel Young, 42, of Nottingham Township, on four federal counts of conspiracy and structuring financial transactions after deliberating for two hours.
Young, who is already serving 12 to 24 years after his 2011 conviction on the drug charges in Washington County, faces up to 20 years in federal prison and could be fined $1 million. U.S. District Judge David Cercone is expected to sentence Young Dec. 4.
Federal prosecutors said Young and two others worked together to structure financial transactions in increments less than $10,000 to avoid reporting the money and purchases to the government.
Beginning in February 2007, Young made about a dozen cash deposits for approximately $9,000 each at branches of the Auto Workers Federal Credit Union, PNC Bank and National City Bank, later using the money to purchase two real estate properties, a pickup truck, a tractor and a front-end loader. The jury decided that those two properties and three vehicles worth a combined $234,859 must be forfeited to the government.
Federal prosecutors alleged that the cash used in those purchases came from Young’s nearly 20 years of drug dealing in Washington County. The district attorney’s Drug Task Force arrested Young in January 2010 after he sold cocaine to undercover officers on nine occasions. He was found guilty June 2011 on all 36 drug charges.
Six months later, federal prosecutors charged him with making the illegal financial transactions using the money from his drug ring.
One of his co-defendants in the federal case, Dennis Young, 47, of Monongahela, pleaded guilty to one charge last month and will be sentenced in November. The other co-defendant, Kimberly Ostrander, 49, of Aleppo Township, is scheduled to have a plea hearing in federal court Wednesday.
Daniel Young’s attorney, Noah Geary, did not return a phone call seeking comment on the case.