Published Tuesday, Sept. 7, 1999 Gary Lenzi, 54, of 3306 Morefield Road, Hermitage, was charged with delivery, intent to deliver drug paraphernalia, possession of a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia and criminal conspiracy before District Justice Henry J. Russo. He was arrested Friday afternoon during an interview with agents at the Hermitage police station.
A Greenville man was also charged Friday. William Crespo, 31, of 29 Jefferson St., was charged with two counts of manufacturing, delivery and possession of a controlled substance and other drug charges. Three others, whose names were not immediately released, were also charged.
Lenzi and Crespo had been part of a Feb. 19 drug bust, but had not been charged because they agreed to cooperate with the attorney general's office, police said.
According to the criminal complaint, agents from the Attorney General's office and county drug task force had been involved in a drug surveillance operation. An agent set up a drug purchase with Crespo to buy a quarter-pound of marijuana. Crespo told the agent he could arrange it and went to a pay phone.
The agent said the first three-digits of the phone number matched what was later identified as Lenzi's number. Crespo met the agent at Wal-Mart in Hermitage and told him he would have to get the marijuana.
While the agent stayed in Hermitage, other agents followed Crespo to Lenzi's home. Crespo returned to Wal-Mart with several plastic bags of marijuana.
According to the complaint, the agent gave Crespo $750 in marked bills for the drugs.
Agents secured a search warrant for Lenzi's home. Agents found guns, equipment used to grow marijuana and roughly $20,000 in cash there. Marked money used in the drug transaction with Crespo was also found.
According to the complaint, the Erie Regional Drug Lab tested and weighed the drugs -- 18.56 pounds of marijuana had been in the Lenzi home.
Lenzi formerly was chief of the Mercer County Narcotics Unit which linked local communities and the county to fight local trafficking in illegal drugs. Member communities and the county contributed funding that was used to make buys from dealers and to pay the wages of undercover investigators drawn from local police departments.
The unit was disbanded in the early 1980s after a 1981 controversy centering on accusations against the unit contained in a report by the Pennsylvania Crime Commission and subsequent disagreements over funding.
Lenzi retired from the unit in 1982.
