San Diego resident Omar Pitter, 45, was handed a 33-year, four-month federal prison sentence today after a jury found him guilty last year in a cross-country methamphetamine trafficking case. Prosecutors say Pitter mailed large quantities of meth to the Tampa Bay area and used financial maneuvers to wash the drug money. The punishment is the latest move in a sprawling, multi-state probe that tied Suncoast street dealers to suppliers in Southern California.
According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, U.S. District Judge William F. Jung imposed the 33-year, 4-month term after a four-day jury trial that wrapped up in September 2025. Investigators testified that Pitter had been commercially shipping cocaine and methamphetamine since 2023, and that searches of his home turned up stacks of money orders and more than $400,000 in appraised jewelry. He was also convicted of conspiring to launder the proceeds from the drug sales.
How Investigators Traced the Pipeline
The case did not start in California, but in Sarasota. DEA agents opened an investigation into local resident Colin Zirpoli in February 2024, which led them up the ladder to suppliers that included Elizabeth Poff, Tony Marsh, and Hopeton Goslin, as reported by WWSB. Search warrants at Goslin’s home and a storage unit turned up more than 45 kilograms of methamphetamine, authorities said. From there, the trail pointed to Pitter in San Diego, who federal agents say relied on FedEx and UPS shipments to move narcotics into the Tampa Bay region.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, several co-conspirators have already learned their fates in court. Hopeton Goslin received 20 years, Tony Marsh received 10 years, Elizabeth Poff received 37 months, and Colin Zirpoli received 30 months after earlier guilty pleas. Trial testimony put the total pipeline at roughly 34 kilograms of cocaine and about 697 pounds of methamphetamine.
Legal Notes
Pitter was convicted of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and conspiring to launder narcotics proceeds. His girlfriend, Keona Fulton, was found guilty of conspiracy to commit money laundering and is awaiting sentencing, WWSB reports. Prosecutors say financial investigators followed a trail of payments and bank activity that showed how the pair used drug money to pay for high-end vehicles, designer clothing, and jewelry tied to the operation.
What This Means for the Suncoast
Law enforcement officials have framed the case as a textbook look at how relatively small neighborhood dealing can be fueled by a coast-to-coast supply chain. The multi-agency investigation pulled in the DEA, the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office, the St. Petersburg Police Department, and the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, as previously detailed in Hoodline coverage of the California-to-Florida drug ring. With Pitter’s long sentence now in place, federal prosecutors say the central supply line they identified in this investigation has been dismantled, although they caution that trafficking networks tend to regroup and that new cases are likely to follow.
