- Wonder if this guy still feels that “laws are arbitrary.”
If you tried to think about people who live up to their word, lawyers probably wouldn’t be on the top of your list. But sometimes you find a lawyer who really is perfectly honest.
Daniel Muessig from Pennsylvania is one of those lawyers, but for all the wrong reasons. In 2014, he released a viral ad in which he boasts that he thinks “like a criminal.”
As it turns out, Muessig meant exactly what he said. The criminal defense attorney is now going to jail for drug trafficking.
On November 16, Muessig pleaded guilty to conspiration to distribute hundreds of pounds of marijuana, reported The Washington Post. Between April and May 2019, he ran a drug stash from his apartment, which also served as the drug network’s headquarters.
None of this should come as a surprise to anyone, though. Muessig made his views on the law clear in his ad.
“America was built on freedom, not on a bunch of people with more money than you telling you what you can and can’t do with all their stupid ‘laws,’” he rants.
The video features the obligatory bald eagle flying by when Muessig mentions “freedom.” And we put quote marks around “laws” because he gives massive air quotes when he says that.
But the most ironic part of Muessig’s ad is his opening line.
“Consequences. They sure suck, don’t they?” he says.
Well? Do they?
“Trust me, I know how to defend a drug violation case. I just had one myself last week.”
Observing the Gang
Although he wasn’t indicted until this summer, cops busted Muessig’s drug ring all the way back in 2019. The series of events could be straight from a CSI episode.
Authorities first got on Muessig’s track in April 2019. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kate Jordan told Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that at that time, the FBI’s Safe Streets Task Force tapped the phone of another drug dealer, Chadlin Leavy.
Leavy sold heroin and cocaine as part of the SCO drug gang, based in Braddock, PA. Since 2019, Leavy has gone to prison for drug trafficking.
Through the wiretaps, the cops learned that Leavy was also dealing in weed. Furthermore, they found out the name of his marijuana contact — Jared Eck.
According to their conversations, Eck delivered new shipments of cannabis to Leavy every Friday. Before meeting with Leavy, though, he would go see a man called Wayne Barker.
Barker, for his part, was the co-operator of the drug ring’s stash house. We already know whose apartment they used, but the cops didn’t — yet.
So, they decided to keep a close eye on Eck. Several times, they saw Eck carry large trash bags conveniently labeled with the kind of weed they held out of Muessig’s apartment.
It’s Showtime
The law enforcers finally decided to act on May 24, 2019. That was when Leave and Eck were supposed to meet after Eck went to see Barker.
On the day, the cops observed Muessig enter his apartment with a backpack. A moment later Barker arrived in a Jeep, and carried a shopping bag and a vacuum sealer into the building.
Another two men arrived in a separate car, and some time a third car — a Dodge Ram — showed up as well. The gathered men unloaded several boxes from the van before loading it with two others.
The Ram drove off, and that’s when the cops pulled it over. In the two boxes in its trunk, they discovered $400,000 in cash.
Next, the police raided the drug house. Inside, they discovered multiple boxes of weed, material for packing the drugs, Barker’s vacuum sealing machine, and a money counter.
According to Jordan, all the marijuana in the apartment weighed a total of 440 pounds. Muessig was personally responsible for distributing anything between 220 and 882 pounds of weed over his criminal career.
On top of the drugs, the police seized two pistols, a revolver, a shotgun, and more than 200 rounds of ammunition from the drug dealers. They also confiscated a car, expensive jewelry, and more drug trading paraphernalia.
The judge presiding over his trial set Muessig’s sentencing to next March. The ex-lawyer faces a mandatory five years in prison.
He’d better get a good lawyer. Preferably one that doesn’t advertise himself with a tagline like “laws are arbitrary.”