Date: March 19, 2024 Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov Pittsburgh, PA — A former resident of DuBois, Pennsylvania, was sentenced in federal court on March 14, 2024, to 70 months of imprisonment, to be followed by three years of supervised release, on his convictions for violating federal narcotics laws resulting from a nine-month Title III wiretap investigation into drug trafficking in and around Jefferson, Clearfield, and Allegheny counties, United States Attorney Eric G. Olshan announced today. United States District Judge Christy Criswell Wiegand imposed the sentence on Brent Coder. According to information presented to the Court, Coder sold two ounces of methamphetamine to a confidential source on Aug. 19, 2020. A month later, Pennsylvania State Police troopers seized approximately one and a half pounds of methamphetamine from Coder’s vehicle, resulting in Coder’s indictment. Federal agents executed a search warrant at Coder’s residence on Aug. 31, 2021, with investigators seizing an additional pound of methamphetamine and four firearms during the search. Assistant United States Attorney Jonathan D. Lusty prosecuted this case on behalf of the government. United States Attorney Olshan commended the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (CI), Drug Enforcement Administration, Homeland Security Investigations, United States Postal Service – Office of Inspector General, United States Postal Inspection Service, Pittsburgh Bureau of Police, Allegheny County Police, and Pennsylvania State Police for the investigation leading to the successful prosecution of Coder. The Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office, Clearfield County District Attorney’s Office, and Clarion Borough Police Department also assisted. This prosecution is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) investigation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multiagency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks. CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.
