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A South Philly resident will spend six months in prison following a federal judge’s Feb. 11 decision to punish him for conspiring with an ex-police officer to rob two drug users.
Robert Powers, whom court records list as having a 19148 zip code, received his sentence from U.S. District Judge Eduardo Robreno five days after former officer Christopher Saravello pleaded guilty to plotting with him and another man. According to his charging document, the 23-year-old sentenced individual agreed in June 2012 to pretend to sell OxyContin pills to a drug user in South Philly. In the scam, Saravello, whom the Eastern District of the United States Attorney’s Office charged in November, drove up in his marked car and uniform, seized around $1,200 and detained Powers, to whom he gave one-third of the score. On another occasion, Saravello ordered Powers and another buyer, identified as South Philly resident Robert Nagy, to stand up against a wall, with the former law enforcement agent taking the same amount of cash.
Powers, having fled on foot, then ventured to meet Nagy, who in July received a 10-month sentence from Robreno, at his residence to collect his share. Saravello, whose extortion scheme netted $9,800 in drug money and quantities of OxyContin and other narcotics, awaits a June sentencing.
Contact Managing Editor Joseph Myers at jmyers@southphillyreview.com or ext. 124.
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