A 26-year-old Ohio man has been sentenced to 17½ years in prison for armed robberies at pharmacies in the Pittsburgh and Bridgeville areas.
Abdulrahman Abdelaziz Jamea, 26, of Columbus, was sentenced July 31 in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
A Pittsburgh jury in March found Jamea guilty of conspiracy to commit armed pharmacy robbery, conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute controlled substances, three counts of armed pharmacy robbery and two counts of pharmacy robbery.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Jamea participated in a conspiracy to rob pharmacies of highly addictive opioids and stimulants between September 2018 and July 2019. This included robberies of pharmacies in Beaver, Bridgeville, Edinboro, Erie, and the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh.
“During three of the robberies, Jamea and his co-conspirators brandished a firearm to threaten the lives of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians and to intimidate them into opening the locked safes where the controlled substances were kept,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement. “Evidence also established that Jamea returned to the Columbus area to sell these stolen drugs to both prescription drug abusers and other traffickers.”
Jamea is currently serving a separate sentence of more than 40 years following a conviction in Ohio for eight counts of felonious assault with a firearm. Judge Arthur J. Schwab ordered the 17½ sentence in this case be served consecutively to Jamea’s term of imprisonment in Ohio.
