January 07, 2026
Bill Oxford/Unsplash
Ronald Byrd, 37, and Saikeen Dixon, 33, have received prison sentences for carjacking a FedEx truck in Grays Ferry on Aug. 10, 2022. Prosecutors say they were searching for a cocaine shipment when they carried out the carjacking.
Two men convicted of carjacking a FedEx truck in Grays Ferry in search of a package containing $500,000 worth of cocaine each have received prison sentences, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
Ronald Byrd, 37, of Philadelphia, was sentenced Tuesday to 22 years in prison and 10 years of supervised release. He was convicted last June of carjacking and related drug and firearms charges. His co-conspirator, Saikeen Dixon, 32, of Philly, was sentenced last month to more than 12 years in prison on related charges.
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Prosecutors said Byrd carjacked the FedEx truck on Aug. 10, 2022 in an attempt to obtain the package. He planned to distribute the drugs inside.
"The defendant was willing to get his shipment of cocaine by any means necessary, stalking and carjacking a FedEx truck at gunpoint on a busy Philly street," U.S. Attorney David Metcalf said in a statement. "Ronald Byrd is clearly a danger to our community with zero regard for the law. This sentence both holds him accountable and makes the city safer."
On the day of the carjacking, a FedEx Express driver was delivering packages to Temple University Hospital in North Philadelphia when he began receiving calls and text messages from a former FedEx employee asking for a package addressed to "Universal Medical Inc," investigators said. The package had been sent Aug. 9 from Buena Park, California to the hospital's address.
The driver refused to turn over the package even after the former employee, whose name has not been released, met him at the Temple Hospital loading dock and offered $5,000 for it, prosecutors said. The driver then reached out to his supervisors, who took the package onto their FedEx van.
As the driver continued on to his next round of deliveries, one of his supervisors noticed a black jeep Cherokee, driven by Dixon, leave the Temple Hospital loading dock and follow the driver, investigators said.
The driver completed his deliveries at nearby Shriner's Hospital and headed for the FedEx loading station in Grays Ferry, with his supervisors and the Jeep following him.
About one block from the loading station, the Jeep pulled in front of the driver's truck at a red light, forcing the driver to stop, prosecutors said. Bryd exited the Jeep and pointed a semi-automatic pistol at the driver, who jumped out of his truck and ran into oncoming traffic toward the FedEx facility.
Bryd drove the FedEx truck across the Grays Ferry Bridge, with Dixon following in the Jeep, investigators said. They stopped at 47th Street and Linmore Avenue in Squirrel Hill. There, Bryd unsuccessfully tried to open the back of the truck before fleeing in the Jeep with Dixon.
After the carjacking, investigators opened the package and found nine individually wrapped plastic packages labeled "DSQUARED2." Each package contained 1 kilogram of cocaine.
Bryd and Dixon were charged in September 2023. Bryd had been on supervised release for a prior federal drug conviction when the carjacking occurred, prosecutors said.
