Monongahela Police Veteran George Langan Arrested On Drug, Corruption Charges
WASHINGTON, Pa. — An 18-year veteran of the Monongahela Police Department was arrested while on duty Friday morning, following a grand jury investigation of drug and corruption allegations.
Patrolman George Langan, 45, of Monongahela, declined comment to Team 4 investigator Jim Parsons as he arrived at the Washington County Courthouse, still wearing his uniform.
“The charges allege Langan protected drug dealers — first by alerting them to pending searches and arrests — and that he also revealed critical, highly confidential police information of counter-narcotics efforts in that area,” District Attorney Steven Toprani said
Langan is accused of accepting cash and cocaine for personal use and helping alleged dealers in exchange, said Toprani, who revealed that Langan came under investigation in June “after drug task force detectives from my county office suspected that several heroin and cocaine investigations were compromised by tip-offs that he allegedly made to targets of those investigations.”
Police Chief Brian Tempest — who worked alongside Langan as a patrolman until last year — wasn’t surprised by the arrest.
”We had rumors for at least 10 years that George Langan was involved in illegal activity,” said Tempest.
Langan was arraigned at District Judge Curtis Thompson’s office and taken to Washington County Correctional Facility on $500,000 bond. A hearing was scheduled for Sept. 16.
WTAE Channel 4′s news exchange partners at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported that the charges include obstruction of justice, hindering apprehension, official oppression, possession and delivery of suspected cocaine, conspiracy and witness intimidation.
Law enforcement sources told Team 4 that Langan tried to hide his payoffs by using them to buy real estate in the Bentleyville area.
The FBI, state police and the state attorney general’s office assisted with the investigation.
