Surveillance photos show alleged drug deal involving Pittsburgh youth football coach
New surveillance photos have been released of the president of a Pittsburgh youth football program allegedly selling drugs at the Chartiers playground and football field.
The coach, Martin Langford, has been released on bond on federal cocaine trafficking charges.
Two Pittsburgh councilmen, Daniel Lavelle and Boby Wilson, spoke with KDKA-TV on Tuesday and said they are disappointed about the allegations against Langford after both men supported giving money to him through STOP the Violence grant funding.
Langford, the president of the Westside Mustang youth football program in Pittsburgh's West End, was one of eight people indicted last week in what federal authorities call a large-scale cocaine trafficking operation.
Federal officials released new surveillance photos in a court filing on Monday as part of the 15-month undercover drug operation that shows the alleged drug transaction between Langford and a supplier at the Chartiers playground and program's football field.
That supplier could be seen in a video carrying a bag, which prosecutors say contained a kilo of cocaine.
They say Langford took the cocaine while sitting in the driver's seat of his pickup truck. Investigators say Langford drove away and sold the cocaine to a confidential informant and returned to the playground and field with the money.
The association was the recipient of STOP the Violence grant funding under former Mayor Ed Gainey.
Lavelle, the Pittsburgh City Council president, co-created the STOP the Violence Trust Fund.
"I just saw the pictures just now, so it is disappointing, but what I don't want to do is cast aspersions on an entire organization and the good work that they do as a whole within the community," Lavelle said. "Both the organization was awarded funding that, to the best of our knowledge, has continued to do good work in the community. It's one individual who chose to make a bad decision."
"That is something that is very concerning, so moving forward we are going to see how we can try and get to the bottom of why some of this may happen and figure out how we can do better with the funding," Councilman Wilson added. "I don't think [the charges are] representative of people who work in this space."
At a detention hearing Monday, Langford pleaded not guilty and was released on a $50,000 bond, despite objections from federal prosecutors who filed supplemental evidence against him.
