The brother of a Moon drug dealer who ran a narcotics ring behind prison walls and across the region has been sentenced to prison for 18 years.
U.S. District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan imposed that term on Ross Landfried, 42, who conspired to distribute drugs and laundered the proceeds while serving a prison sentence for drug dealing.
His brother, ringleader Noah Landfried, 38, is serving 27½ years.
Ross Landfried’s term must be served consecutively to his prior sentence, Ranjan ruled.
A federal jury convicted Ross in June 2022. He had been serving a federal prison term in 2017 and 2018 and continued trafficking drugs while in prison, helping to lead a scheme to smuggle legal papers and mail saturated with cannabinoids into U.S. prisons for inmates to smoke or chew in exchange for a fee.
The K2-soaked paper endangered inmates and caused overdoses, assaults and lockdowns, the U.S. attorney’s office said. Prosecutors said Ross Landfried also was involved in repeated episodes of violence and weapons possession while pending trial after his indictment.
Noah Landfried was sentenced in March for drug trafficking and money laundering and violating his probation from a prior prosecution in Illinois, where federal agents said he and Ross shipped two tons of marijuana from Mexico into the U.S. and drove it to Pittsburgh to sell.
Noah and Ross were the leaders of a gang of Aliquippa and Ambridge criminals who shipped the pot into Nevada and Arizona, then to Pittsburgh.
Noah originally got life in that case, but the sentence was reduced to 200 months, and he got out in 2017.
In the more recent case, Noah was convicted of distributing cocaine, fentanyl and heroin in addition to running the prison K2 scheme.
Torsten covers the courts for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Reach him at jtorsteno@gmail.com.
