While other co-defendants who pleaded guilty to lesser charges received probation, Lyle Dietz and Dean Desanis face prison time when they are sentenced.
View full sizeLyle Foster Dietz, of the 6100 block of Airport Road in East Allen Township, was charged in connection with a $7 million meth ring that stretched from Mexico to the Lehigh Valley. Two more defendants arrested in connection with a multimillion-dollar crystal methamphetamine ring that stretched from Mexico to the Lehigh Valley pleaded guilty today.
And while other co-defendants who pleaded guilty to lesser charges received probation, these two face prison time.
Lyle Dietz, of the 6100 block of Airport Road in East Allen Township, pleaded guilty to a felony count of possession with intent to deliver meth.
Pennsylvania Deputy Attorney General Michael Dugan said agents intercepted calls in May 2012 between Dietz and Michael Lehreman over a deal for two ounces of methamphetamine. Lehreman routinely sold crystal methamphetamine to customers from his Dogwood Road home in Lehigh Township, prosecutors said.
Lehreman agreed to pay $4,600 to Dietz for the drug, and Dietz was stopped May 29 in Allentown with the drug in his car, Dugan said.
Under the plea agreement, the 59-year-old Dietz faces a minimum of 33 months in prison and prosecutors plan to ask for a maximum of 10 years. Defense attorney Josh Karoly said he would ask that his client be eligible for Recidivism Risk Reduction Incentive, known as triple R-I, which would reduce Dietz’s sentence to close to 25 months.
Dietz’s sentencing was scheduled for Jan. 16 because he said he will be having surgery for a growth on his vocal chords in December. He remains free on $150,000 bail.
Dean Desanis, of Belle Mead, N.J., also pleaded guilty to one count of possession with intent to deliver marijuana. Desanis was stopped July 24, 2012, in Allentown and found with two pounds of marijuana that he was planning to supply to a co-defendant involved in the meth ring, Dugan said.
Desanis’ sentencing was also scheduled for Jan. 16; under the plea agreement, his minimum sentence would be capped at three months in prison. Desanis, 51, faces a maximum of five years in prison. He is free on $100,000 unsecured bail.
In exchange for both pleas, prosecutors dropped a slew of charges against each man, including corrupt organizations and conspiracy charges.
Twenty-three people from the Lehigh Valley, Montgomery County and New Jersey were busted in April following a 15-month investigation by the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office. Prosecutors said the ring distributed $7 million worth of meth over five years. Over the course of their investigation, which began in January 2012, agents seized 103 handguns and rifles, $49,000, six cars, a four-wheeler and drug paraphernalia, authorities say.
Four ring members described as lower level pleaded guilty last month.
As for the remaining co-defendants charged in connection with the meth ring, Dugan said there are ongoing negotiations but he is gearing up for trial in some of the cases. Many of the defendants are free on bail.