HARRISBURG — Attorney General Dave Sunday announced charges against seven individuals as part of a takedown of a Blair County-based drug-trafficking network — with the group’s supplier also charged as the source of a fatal fentanyl overdose in Altoona.
The Office of Attorney General’s Bureau of Narcotics Investigations, following a presentment from the 51st Statewide Investigating Grand Jury, filed charges this week against Rickey “Rizz” Sharief Joyner and six of his street-level dealers.
Joyner, 44, is charged with corrupt organizations, felony drug-trafficking offenses, and third-degree murder, regarding the 2022 overdose death in which he provided fentanyl represented as Oxycodone.
“The hard work of investigators uncovered a Baltimore-to-Pennsylvania drug-trafficking pipeline that primarily involved sales of cocaine at Blair County bars and clubs,” Attorney General Sunday said. “The culmination of agents’ and grand jurors’ efforts led to the takedown of this coordinated network of dealers.”
Pennsylvania State Police, Blair County Drug Task Force, and the Blair County District Attorney’s Office assisted in the investigation.
Investigators used a number of tactics, including controlled buys, search warrants, and scouring payment app records to build cases against the seven defendants.
Charged along with Joyner are:
Tareek Hemingway, Laura Horne, Cecylia Thompson, Matthew Rodriquez, Milton Williams, and Kirsten Wright.
Not all the defendants, including Joyner, are in custody.
During an Aug. 2024 search warrant at Joyner’s stash house, Joyner became aware police were outside, and directed others in the house to “flush everything.” Agents witnessed bags (later determined to contain cocaine) and trafficking paraphernalia being thrown out of a window.
Regarding the 2022 fatal overdose, investigators determined Joyner provided what the victim believed to be a Oxycodone tablet — but was actually fentanyl.
The cases will be prosecuted by the Office of Attorney General’s Drug Strike Force Section. Criminal charges, and any discussion thereof, are merely allegations and all defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
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