Blair County man sentenced to federal prison for drug trafficking in Central Pennsylvania
Douglass Hillegass, 62, of Duncansville, was sentenced in federal court to 33 months in prison followed by two years of supervised release after pleading guilty to one count of distributing meth in October 2024, Acting United States Attorney Troy Rivetti announced.
Ten Central Pennsylvanians indicted on federal charges for drugs, money laundering
Hillegass' conviction came when he, along with nine others, were indicted by a grand jury in 2023 after a six-month-long wiretap investigation into drug trafficking around Blair Cambria, Centre and Clearfield counties.
According to information presented to the court, Hillegass obtained roughly six ounces of methamphetamine from a large-scale dealer to sell and distribute to others in the area.Acting United States Attorney Rivetti commended the Drug Enforcement Administration, United States Postal Service – Office of Inspector General, United States Postal Inspection Service, Homeland Security Investigations, Internal Revenue Service, Pittsburgh Bureau of Police, and Pennsylvania State Police for the investigation leading to the successful prosecution of Hillegass.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


USA Today
14 hours ago
- USA Today
Trump signs bill making tough sentences for fentanyl trafficking permanent
Nearly 73,000 people died from overdosing synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, according to the government. WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump signed a law that extends tougher prison sentences for fentanyl trafficking, surrounded by relatives of people who died from overdoses and lawmakers who approved the bill. 'Today we strike a righteous blow to the drug dealers, narcotic traffickers and criminal cartels,' Trump said. 'We take a historic step toward justice for every family touched by the fentanyl scourge.' The law places fentanyl on the Drug Enforcement Administration's list of most serious drugs with no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. The list includes drugs such as heroin, cocaine and LSD. Fentanyl has been temporarily assigned to the Schedule 1 category since 2018. The law makes the designation permanent. The law also makes permanent mandatory minimum penalties of five years in prison for trafficking 10 grams of fentanyl and 10 years for 100 grams. 'It doesn't sound like much, but it's a big deal," Trump said. The Department of Homeland Security seized 27,000 pounds of fentanyl and arrested 3,600 criminal suspects in 2024. More than 105,000 people nationwide died of drug overdoses in 2023, including nearly 73,000 from synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The crackdown on fentanyl distribution is also at the heart of current U.S. trade disputes with China, Mexico and Canada. Trump imposed tariffs on those countries, citing the threat of cross-border fentanyl trafficking. 'We are delivering another defeat for the savage drug smugglers and criminals and the cartels," Trump said. Parents of several people who died after overdosing on fentanyl spoke at the event. Anne Fundner, whose 15-year-old son Weston died of an accidental fentanyl overdose in 2022, previously spoke at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last year. "It is a lifeline for families across America for keeping our families safe," Fundner said of the legislation. 'This is what we voted for, Mr. President." Gregory Swan, whose 24-year-old son Drew died of fentanyl poisoning, started a group known as Fentanyl Fathers, in which parents tell their story to high schools across America. 'His passing ruined, I thought, my life,' Swan said. 'There's despair and there's hopelessness. But we've been able to find some repose in going out and advocating.'

2 days ago
DEA chief says meth surge 'frightens' him, especially meth-laced pills targeting college-age adults
As federal authorities continue to crack down on the spread of fentanyl across the country, the Drug Enforcement Administration is warning about a surge in the use of methamphetamine, with DEA officials expressing particular concern over meth-laced pills being sold as drugs like Adderall to college-age adults. "What we've seen here recently, that frightens me," acting DEA administrator Robert Murphy told ABC News' Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas in an exclusive interview. Murphy said the DEA expects its seizures of methamphetamine to nearly double this year compared to last year. The DEA has so far seized about 70,000 pounds of the drug this year, already nearly matching the numbers reached in all of 2024, Murphy said. "Methamphetamine is by far the most coveted drug," Murphy said. "This is what people want." The DEA has become so concerned about the continuing boom of methamphetamine use that it's planning to hold a press conference on Tuesday to draw attention to it. "In the first six months of this year, we've already seen more than ... what we seized last year," Murphy told ABC News. "And we project ... we're going to double what we seized last year." Murphy said that one of the most disturbing things about methamphetamine is that "Mexican cartels control 100% of it." "They control production, the smuggling, the distribution in the United States, and obviously the actual collection of monies and getting the money back into Mexico," he said. And cartels are growingly increasingly creative in how they try to smuggle meth across the U.S.-Mexico border -- from hiding packages of meth pills among green onions to disguising meth shipments as loads of celery. In one location during the week of July 4, the DEA discovered hundreds of boxes of cucumbers that had been lined with several hundreds pounds of meth, worth nearly $4 million. And in May, with assistance from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, federal authorities arrested six people who were allegedly bringing liquid meth into the United States and driving it to Kansas by hiding it in the septic tank of a charter bus. Authorities became suspicious after realizing that the bus rarely had any passengers. "They're only limited by their imagination," Murphy said of the smugglers. "And they have a very broad imagination." Murphy called it "a cat and mouse game." He said cartels now have a "huge focus" on pills, which he said have less of a stigma than injectable drugs. As a result, Murphy said, turning meth into pill form makes it more marketable, and therefore more easily sold as something it's not, such as fake Adderall or fake MDMA -- the active ingredient in ecstasy. "[It's] all of the drugs that that are wanted by our college-age kids, and younger," he said. "They're actually getting meth, and they don't know this." According to the most recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control, drug overdose deaths in the United States sharply decreased by almost 27% last year. But while fentanyl and other opioid-related overdoses dropped the most -- by more than a third -- overdoses related to meth and other psychostimulants dropped the least -- by nearly 22%. "You're buying a pill off the street nowadays, you're taking your life in your own hands," Murphy warned, saying that that "almost everything" the DEA is now seizing turns out to be "fake." "And as an investigator, our men and women have a hard time distinguishing between what's real and what's not," Murphy said. "So there's no way the average user is going to be able to do that."


The Hill
3 days ago
- The Hill
GOP Rep. Scott Perry to be challenged by Democrat he defeated in 2024
Democrat and former broadcast journalist Janelle Stelson launched her second challenge against Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) in Pennsylvania's 10th congressional district on Monday. Stelson narrowly lost to Perry by just over one percent in 2024. The highly competitive 10th congressional district has been rated as a toss-up, according to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. FBI agents seized Perry's cell phone in 2022 in connection with investigations into President Trump. A court later issued a ruling shielding much of the communications on the phone between Perry and other lawmakers from special counsel Jack Smith. Controversies hanging over the 2020 presidential election and the investigation hung over the 2024 race, when Perry won reelection and Trump won Pennsylvania after losing the state in 2020 to former President Biden. A poll conducted earlier this month by the left-leaning Data for Progress on behalf of the Democratic-aligned House Majority PAC shows Stelson leading Perry 46 percent to 43 percent. In a statement announcing her campaign, Stelson blasted Perry for voting for President Trump's legislative agenda. 'Scott Perry has spent more than a decade in DC taking votes that hurt us instead of delivering results – and he just sold us out again by casting the deciding vote for the largest Medicaid cuts in history, all to fund more tax cuts for billionaires,' Stelson said in a statement. 'People around here are sick and tired of career politicians like Scott Perry betraying them at every turn. I'm running to give Central Pennsylvanians the voice they deserve and to fight to lower costs, protect Social Security and Medicare, ensure a woman's right to choose and secure the border,' she continued. The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) responded to Stelson's entrance into the race in a statement on Monday. 'Welcome back to certified loser Janelle Stelson! If there's one thing we know for sure, it's that Janelle Stelson, who won't even bother to live in the district she wants to represent, doesn't stand a chance against Scott Perry. Pennsylvanians have rejected her before, and they'll gladly do so again in 2026,' NRCC spokeswoman Maureen O'Toole said. Stellson is expected to have the support of the Democratic establishment going into the general election. According to her campaign, Stelson has already secured endorsements from Lt. Gov. Austin Davis (D), state Sen. Patty Kim (D), state Reps. Carol Hill-Evans (D), Dave Madsen (D), and Nate Davidson (D).