Thirteen people are facing felony drug charges after Pennsylvania prosecutors say they dismantled a cocaine and crack cocaine pipeline that ran from Youngstown into Butler County, Pennsylvania, for the better part of a year. Seven of the defendants are from Youngstown, while the remaining six were charged in Butler County as the local distribution arm of the operation.
According to WFMJ, the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office filed charges against all 13 suspects, accusing the Youngstown-based dealers of trafficking cocaine and crack cocaine to Butler County for distribution. Attorney General Dave Sunday said the criminal organization made routine, sometimes daily, trips into Pennsylvania to move the drugs, and that the arrests effectively shut down a major cocaine trafficking pipeline, per the same report. Investigators separately told the WPXI that the ring made hundreds of trips across state lines over the past year to keep the supply flowing.
Five Youngstown Dealers Named, Two Still at Large
Five of the seven Youngstown suspects arrested in connection with the charges have been identified as Anthony “Ace” Chilton, Marquel “Money” Winphrie, Reinaldo Rosado Lizardi, Eddie “Ghost” Winphrie, and Jumal McQueen, per WFMJ's reporting. The Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office has not named the two remaining Youngstown dealers tied to the case, who are described as still at large.
On the Butler County side, prosecutors charged Jason White, Mylan Green, Daniel Morehead, Brittany Boring, Shaddi Shanaa, and Donald Vargo, according to WFMJ. These local intermediaries were compensated directly in cash or in drugs for handling street-level distribution on behalf of the Youngstown dealers, according to the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General.
A Yearlong, Multi-Agency Takedown
The investigation that unraveled the network stretched roughly a year and drew on a coalition that included the Attorney General's Bureau of Narcotics Investigation, Pennsylvania State Police, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the Butler County District Attorney's Office, and Butler City Police, the Attorney General's Office said. The U.S. Marshals Service assisted ongoing arrest efforts. State prosecutors also relied on a Pennsylvania Statewide Investigative Grand Jury to gather evidence and recommend felony indictments against the 13 suspects, a mechanism the state uses to investigate organized crime that crosses county lines, as reported by WPXI.
All 13 defendants face felony counts of corrupt organizations and drug trafficking offenses, which will be prosecuted by the Attorney General's Drug Strike Force Section, according to the Attorney General's Office. That section is led by Chief Deputy Attorney General Michael Madeira, a veteran prosecutor appointed in 2025 who specializes in wiretap operations and grand jury investigations, per the National Association of Attorneys General. Dave Sunday has made cross-border drug pipeline enforcement a stated priority, according to FOX43 News.
Why the Youngstown-to-Butler Route Works for Traffickers
Sunday noted that cross-border drug operations routinely move narcotics into Western Pennsylvania from Northeast Ohio hubs to supply local street dealers, according to the Attorney General's Office. The geography helps explain why: Butler lies roughly 46 road miles from Youngstown, according to Rome2Rio.
For now, the case moves to court under the Drug Strike Force Section, with the fate of the two unnamed Youngstown suspects still at large left as one of the investigation's open threads.
