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…