Two of four Mt. Pleasant-area men charged with operating a large-scale black market fireworks operation were sentenced on Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh.
Howard F. McCloy, 64, pleaded guilty in January and Howard "Tubs" McCloy Jr., 25, pleaded guilty in November to charges of conspiracy and dealing in explosives without a license.
Judge Arthur Schwab sentenced Howard F. McCloy to one year and three months in prison plus three years of probation. The judge sentenced Howard McCloy Jr. to three years of probation with the first six months to be served in home confinement.
Federal officials described the McCloys' fireworks operation that has gone on for many years as expansive. The men sold shipments of up to 100 cases at a time in Ohio, West Virginia and Maryland, sometimes earning as much as $3,000 per transaction, according to the indictment.
When agents conducted a raid on June 19, 2008, on Howard McCloy's property in the Mt. Pleasant Township village of Bridgeport they found 13,000 explosive devices in trailers on the property. During the surprise raid the elder McCloy had to be transported to Excela Health Frick hospital in Mt. Pleasant for treatment of chest pains.
James E. McCloy, 61, and Fred Collins, 61, have also pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing. Collins pleaded guilty to conspiracy.
James McCloy pleaded guilty to conspiracy, two counts of transporting explosives without a license and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. He was convicted in 1999 in Ohio for selling fireworks without a license and federal agents found 10 pistols and rifles when they searched his home, also in Bridgeport, in June 2008.
The four men brought in truckloads of fireworks, according to federal agents. They bought the fireworks from a licensed dealer and then resold them.
In addition to consumer and display fireworks, they dealt in flash powder and M-80s and M-200s, which are illegal and classified as explosives under federal law.
The four men operated a fireworks business from 2003 through 2008, when ATF agents raided McCloy's home and confiscated trailers filled with explosives and thousands of cases of fireworks, authorities said.
