PITTSBURGH - A Pittsburgh drug dealer will spend life in prison for his role in what Attorney General John Ashcroft called western Pennsylvania's largest cocaine and heroin ring. <br>
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Donald ``Chief'' Lyles was sentenced Friday by U.S. District Judge Donetta Ambrose under the Continued Criminal Enterprise Act. <br>
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The law allows federal prosecutors to seek a mandatory life sentence against defendants who headed a large drug operation with at least five co-conspirators. Prosecutors must prove defendants directed a ring which distributed large quantities of cocaine, heroin or crack cocaine or brought in at least ten million dollars in a year. <br>
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Prosecutors say that Lyles, the son of a former Pittsburgh police officer, was involved in a ring that supplied drugs from New Jersey to Atlanta. Prosecutors say the heroin is believed to be responsible for eleven deaths in western Pennsylvania.
