A 72-year-old Upper Burrell man is wanted on an arrest warrant after North Huntingdon Township Police say he spent months brokering heroin, fentanyl and crack cocaine deals that stretched from Westmoreland County into Allegheny County. Larry Sieff, who police say split his time between a house on Upper Drennan Road and an RV parked in Adamsburg, is accused of arranging narcotics purchases involving undercover officers in North Versailles, Clairton and Squirrel Hill.
The investigation began after North Huntingdon police received a tip that Sieff was living out of the RV camper in Adamsburg while selling bricks of heroin and fentanyl, according to a release from the Westmoreland County District Attorney's Office posted on CrimeWatch. During that first undercover contact in May, Sieff told the officer he'd need a ride to the McKeesport area to pick up narcotics from a supplier, the release states. As reported by TribLIVE, the case has produced six felony counts against Sieff for manufacturing, delivery or possession with intent to manufacture, along with three misdemeanor counts for possession of controlled substances.
How the Undercover Buys Unfolded
According to the criminal complaint, an undercover North Huntingdon officer first met Sieff on May 29 in a bar parking lot in North Versailles, where Sieff handed over 10 bricks of heroin and fentanyl and gave money to a driver known only as Grant. The relationship escalated on June 8, when the undercover officer paid $3,000 for 20 bricks of heroin and fentanyl and gave Sieff $1,500 directly, per the same account. That same day, the complaint states, another man handed Sieff a blue flannel jacket containing a clear bag of heroin and fentanyl bricks, which Sieff then passed along, and an undercover officer traveled with Sieff to a Family Dollar in Clairton as part of the exchange.
Police allege Sieff kept two of the 20 bricks from that June transaction for himself, treating them as payment for arranging the deal, the station's report notes. Weeks later, Sieff allegedly moved into cocaine territory as well. On June 16 in Squirrel Hill, per the criminal complaint, Sieff entered a gray Dodge Durango outside a Jersey Mike's on Browns Hill Road as part of arranging a crack cocaine buy involving a man known as Uncle Joe.
A Broker's Fee and a Family Supply Line
The June 16 crack cocaine deal came with its own markup: Sieff allegedly charged the undercover officer a $100 broker fee on top of the drug's $800 price tag, per the complaint's account relayed by the station. Sieff handed over a clear plastic bag of crack cocaine that police say weighed about 27.9 grams. During the drive that day, Sieff reportedly told the undercover detective he had been buying crack cocaine from Uncle Joe for more than 13 years, and separately said his crack supplier was the brother of his primary heroin and fentanyl source, connecting two branches of the alleged operation within one family.
North Huntingdon police arranged the string of undercover buys through cross-county coordination that mirrors how smaller Westmoreland County departments typically operate. Small municipal police departments in the county frequently work with the Westmoreland County Drug Task Force, which pools local officers, county detectives and state narcotics agents for multi-jurisdictional surveillance and undercover buys, as previously reported by TribLIVE.
Pending Case and What Comes Next
Sieff already had other pending drug charges from February, and a hearing on those charges that had originally been scheduled for August 19 was continued rather than held as planned. A preliminary hearing on the newer charges is set for September 30 at District Judge Charles Moore's office. It remains unclear where Sieff is currently located, and open questions remain about whether the men identified in the complaint as Grant and Uncle Joe will face charges of their own.
If Sieff is apprehended and convicted, he faces significant exposure under Pennsylvania's Controlled Substance, Drug, Device and Cosmetic Act. Manufacturing, delivering or possessing with intent to deliver Schedule I or II narcotics like heroin or fentanyl is an ungraded felony carrying up to 15 years in prison and fines up to $250,000 per count, according to Shrager Defense Attorneys. Cocaine delivery charges carry a lower ceiling under the same statute, with penalties of up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to $100,000 per count.
The Broader Overdose Picture
The case lands amid a slight easing of the region's overdose numbers. Overdose deaths in Westmoreland County fell 11% between 2024 and 2025, while neighboring Allegheny County saw deaths drop 9.5%, from 432 to 391, over the same period, according to TribLIVE. Coroner data cited in that same report found fentanyl involved in 59% of Allegheny County's 2025 overdose deaths, while nearly half of Westmoreland County's fatal overdoses involved multi-drug combinations that included fentanyl, with cocaine ranking as the second most common drug in both counties.
Statewide, the toll remains steep. The Pennsylvania Department of Health has reported that roughly 83% of the state's 4,719 fatal drug overdoses in 2023 were opioid-related and nearly 77% involved fentanyl, amounting to an average of one overdose death every two hours across Pennsylvania. Westmoreland County distributes free harm reduction supplies, including Narcan nasal spray and fentanyl and xylazine testing strips, through its Division of Community Relations and Prevention under the state's Overdose Prevention Program.
Sieff has not been taken into custody, and the allegations against him remain unproven in court. North Huntingdon police have not indicated whether they have located him since the warrant was issued.
-4.webp?w=160&h=400&fit=crop&crop=edges)