Officers Who Worked the Washington Boulevard Flood to be Honored Friday

The Law Enforcement Agency Directors (LEAD) of Western Pennsylvania will hold the 14th Annual LEAD Awards Ceremony today, Nov. 18, at the FBI - Pittsburgh Field Office on Pittsburgh’s South Side.

The LEAD Investigative Team Awards will be presented to the agents and attorneys who investigated and prosecuted the Manchester Original Gangsters and the Le-Nature’s Inc. fraud scheme.

Individual awards for outstanding performance in law enforcement will be presented to 34 agents, officers, troopers, deputy sheriffs and prosecutors. The men and women being recognized include:

• Ten Pittsburgh Police Officers who responded to the Aug. 19th Washington Boulevard flood and rescued seven stranded motorists. ; and died during the flood.

• Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agents Scott M. Smith and Kevin W. Black, and IRS-Criminal Investigation Agent Jamie Bandzak for dismantling a significant Mexican Drug Trafficking Organization operating in Pittsburgh.

• U.S. Postal Inspector Brian A. Plants for investigating and solving the placement and detonation of pipebombs in residential mailboxes in the New Kensington area.

• Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Gary T. Morgan Jr. for conducting an international terrorist investigation targeting an online Jihadist.

• Pennsylvania State Parole Agents Thomas Pekar and Bruce Schmolke, who were part of a multi-jurisdictional task force that served an arrest warrant at the Korbe residence the morning that FBI Agent Samuel Hicks was fatally shot. Agents Pekar and Schmolke pulled Agent Hicks to safety and attempted life-saving efforts.

• Pennsylvania State Trooper James Simpson, who solved the case of a Jeannette man who was secretly making videos of female customers, including minors, of a Westmoreland County tanning salon and then posting the videos on-line.

LEAD is composed of the following law enforcement agencies and their representatives:

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Drug Enforcement Administration; Federal Bureau of Investigation; U.S. Attorney’s Office - Western District of Pennsylvania; Homeland Security Investigations; IRS - Criminal Division; U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Transportation Security Administration; U.S. Department of Defense - Defense Criminal Investigative Service; U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; U.S. Marshals Service; U.S. Postal Service, Office of Inspector General; U.S. Postal Inspection Service; U.S. Secret Service; U.S. Social Security Administration; U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Air Marshal Service; the U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs; U.S. Department of Labor - OIG; Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland; Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office; Pennsylvania State Police; Allegheny County Police Department; Allegheny County Sheriff’s Office; Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office; and the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police.