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Pittsfield school dean accused of running drug trafficking ring
Lavante Wiggins, who works at Pittsfield High School, and another man are facing federal charges connected to cocaine trafficking.
A school leader at Pittsfield High School is accused of running a cocaine drug ring and trafficking large amounts of the drug around Western Massachusetts, federal prosecutors said.
Lavante Wiggins, the dean of students at Pittsfield High School, and another Pittsfield man are facing federal charges connected to cocaine trafficking, according to U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Joshua Levy.
Wiggins, 30, and his associate Theodore “Monty” Warren, 42, are each charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute cocaine, federal prosecutors said. Both were arrested Wednesday morning.
Pittsfield Public Schools did not reply to a request for comment, and an email to Wiggins’s school email did not go through. PPS Superintendent Joseph Curtis told the Berkshire Eagle that Wiggins was immediately placed on administrative leave.
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“We have been informed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office about the arrest of Lavante Wiggins, Dean of Students at Pittsfield High School,” Curtis wrote told the Pittsfield Public Schools community, the Eagle reported. “In response to this matter, Mr. Wiggins has been placed on administrative leave effective immediately.”
Pittsfield men allegedly trafficked large amounts of cocaine in Western Mass.
Warren allegedly served as a drug runner for Wiggins, according to Levy’s office. In August, Wiggins began sending Warren to drug sales and cocaine deliveries because he was under investigation, prosecutors alleged.
One of Wiggins’s customers was also more than $34,000 in debt for cocaine, which the pair collected on while also continuing to provide large amounts of the drug, according to prosecutors. Allegedly, Wiggins directly asked Warren to bring that customer 91 grams of cocaine in September, 100 grams in October, 125 grams in November, and 150 grams on Tuesday.
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One gram of cocaine was about $184 in United States street prices in 2021, according to data from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
The charge carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, up to a lifetime of supervised release, and a fine of up to $1 million.
Both appeared in front of a federal judge in Springfield and were released after an initial court appearance, Levy’s office said in a statement.
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