By the point you learn this, Dan Muessig may have been sentenced to between 5 to 80 years in federal jail.
Sentenced on March 8, 2022, Muessig faces an unsure size of time in one of many U.S. federal prisons throughout the nation. He finds himself within the predicament over two fees: conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute hashish. The Feds allege that he and his group moved between 220 and 880 kilos of pot within the Pittsburgh space.
An Early Introduction to Legacy Hashish
Muessig doesn’t deny his involvement within the Orange Field Crew, whose motto was “No Grows Simply Bows.” He acknowledges having a historical past with pot courting again to his early days rising up within the Jewish, city enclave of Squirrel Hill. Likening his upbringing to the films Youngsters meets Goodfellas, Muessig stated his youth and early grownup life was crammed with pals skateboarding and tagging, battle rapping and getting concerned in pot. He went to the identical highschool that produced Mac Miller and Wiz Khalifa just some years later, Taylor Allderdice Excessive Faculty.
He had been uncovered to pot lengthy earlier than highschool. “I grew up in nothing however folks smoking weed, promoting weed,” he instructed Excessive Occasions six days earlier than his sentencing. “There was at all times large-scale, organized hashish trafficking in Squirrel Hill,” he stated, including that it was frequent to see pot gross sales happening. Ultimately, he bought requested to run favors for native legacy operators in Pittsburgh and, afterward, in faculty at Temple College in Philadelphia.
He stated, “As an alternative of being requested, ‘Hey child, wash my automotive,’ it was, ‘Hey child, run to the shop and seize me some blunts.’” In time, Muessig and his crew would type what he described as a “legacy entice.” On the identical time, his battle rap profession was taking off. Generally known as Dos-Noun, Muessig traveled the world together with his music whereas pot gross sales grew at dwelling, a lot in order that he turned a outstanding title within the space’s underground scene, transferring substantial quantities of pot.
Alongside the way in which, he started to see the hardships of the legacy (i.e. illicit) market, witnessing folks being indicted for his or her involvement as he additional immersed himself. Publish-undergrad, with music now not sustaining him, he entered legislation faculty. In time, he handed the bar and had clearance to defend towards drug fees and different crimes, together with homicide, housebreaking, and assault, calling legal guidelines arbitrary.
“The weirdest factor I ever did was go to legislation faculty,” he stated of his life experiences.
In 2013, Muessig’s video advertisement went viral. The polarizing clip confirmed Muessig getting people off for an array of crimes, starting from pot to intercourse work to theft. The hook that caught most was Muessig admitting, “I could have a legislation diploma, however I feel like a felony.”
The Partitions Come Crumbling In
In 2019, together with his observe within the rearview and entice booming, the partitions got here crumbling in. A raid on the home led to 2 years of uncertainty till Muessig was charged. Unwilling to supply data towards anybody within the operation, he was discovered responsible. Now going through a compulsory minimal of 5 years in federal jail, Muessig may spend as much as 80 years in jail for a nonviolent hashish cost.
Muessig recalled what he thinks led to him and his group being concerned in a federal investigation. He stated that the group did their greatest to not draw consideration to themselves or escalate into violence, adhering to a “no onerous medication” and “non-violence besides in unquestionable instances of self-defense” insurance policies through the years. Whereas transferring substantial weight, they believed that they might fly below the radar.
Unconfirmed however assured, he believes the crew’s prospects modified as the encompassing space started to gentrify. He acknowledged that the choice to ramp up arrests stemed from gentrification efforts, with arrests resulting in households transferring out of their communities as soon as the bread winner was in jail. Muessig believes that these efforts centered on a large drug operation primarily based in close by Braddock, PA, dwelling to present state lieutenant governor and hashish legalization proponent John Fetterman. He thinks Feds started to focus on the Orange Field Crew after a member of the Braddock-area group purchased pot from Muessig’s operation through an middleman.
Muessig and his spouse, Laura, had seen sufficient pals within the recreation go down, be it jail or homicide. Laura, who met Dan on MySpace in 2003 and repeatedly attended legalization rallies in her free time, insisted Dan get out earlier than it was too late. The couple had long-settled right into a quiet lifetime of international movies and teetotaling, pot excluded. They have been within the closing levels of adopting a child from South Korea by the summer season of 2021.
However by 2019, after years of assembling the operation, Muessig didn’t need to let go of one thing he cherished. That call would result in his indictment and their adoption hopes shuttered.
“I instructed my mother that she was going to be a grandmother once more,” he stated, including that informing her these plans had modified was one of many hardest experiences to this point.
Muessig stated he ought to’ve listened to the one he cherished most, Laura. “I cherished her extra, however I ought to’ve listened to her extra as a result of she instructed me to pack it up,” he stated.
On Could 24, 2019, the entice was raided, with 404 kilos seized. Muessig caught wind early and determined to get dwelling after warning others. They remained on the home, opting to try to experience out the warmth, however it didn’t work. When he bought dwelling to Laura, he instructed her what occurred they usually talked in regards to the subsequent steps, which concerned bailing out crew members and planning for his personal arrest. As soon as he instructed her the information, Muessig stated he watched Laura die inside.
The household waited over two years to see if Muessig would ultimately be charged. On August 23, 2021, he was indicted. All of the whereas, he stated Feds needed him to flip, present proof, and sure obtain a lesser sentence. That didn’t occur. As an alternative, Muessig pleaded responsible in November 2021.
“The best way that they got here at me… I simply refused,” he stated. Now going through a doable decades-long sentence, he stated prosecutors shouldn’t have indicted him and imposed a compulsory minimal sentence as a ploy for his compliance.
Final Days of Freedom
Muessig admits he did the crime and may do a while, however the destruction of his household and doable size of the sentence don’t match the invoice. He believes that extra elements, together with his viral video and unwillingness to turn into a witness, are sealing his destiny.
“I’m about to get sentenced to, at greatest, the five-year obligatory minimal,” he stated, including that pedophiles, murderers, and terrorists have acquired lesser sentences.
As the times depend down, Muessig stated he and his household haven’t executed a lot. “We don’t do a lot as a result of there’s no pleasure in doing something,” he stated.
A Plea to President Biden
As soon as sentenced, Muessig gained’t have the standard enchantment choices as a consequence of his act of contrition. As an alternative, he has to hope for President Joe Biden to take govt motion of some type. Whereas ready, he’s garnered the assist of hashish prisoner advocacy ventures together with Freedom Develop, 40 Tons, and the Final Prisoner Venture.
Muessig hopes to see extra progressives maintain the president to his dedication to take motion on federal hashish arrests and the greater than 2,000 people within the federal system immediately. Whereas ready on any doable motion, he implores supporters to be taught and comply with extra about him on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, the place he’ll put up through a proxy whereas sentenced.
Although he hopes to achieve publicity for his personal case, Muessig closed the interview emphasizing the scores of different hashish offenders nonetheless in or affected by drug sentences. Calling for the liberty of people like Bobby Cappelli, Luke Scarmazzo, Parker Coleman, John Wall and Mohammed Taher, he commends those who stood as much as Feds and didn’t waver when supplied lesser sentences in alternate for the lives of others or discrediting hashish.
Saying the trigger goes past those who obtain publicity, like himself, Muessig acknowledged “It’s about each different person who needed to face this alone.”