April 11, 2024
Thom Carroll/for PhillyVoice
The Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office and the FBI arrested 17 people and seized cocaine, marijuana, guns and cash following a monthslong investigation.
Seventeen people are facing charges stemming from the investigation of a Philadelphia-based drug trafficking ring that resulted in the seizure of cocaine, marijuana, guns and cash, the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office said Thursday.
Over a period of several months, narcotics investigators and the FBI served more than a dozen search warrants on homes and cars in the Philadelphia area.
James Lofton, 60, of Philadelphia, was identified Thursday as one of the alleged ringleaders of the network.
During the investigation, authorities seized nearly 10 pounds of cocaine powder and crack cocaine, 33 pounds of marijuana and cutting agents, prosecutors said. A total of 15 illegally owned guns — 10 handguns and five long guns — also were seized along with $65,630 in cash, according to investigators.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry said the network was a "sophisticated, upper-level trafficking ring that was constantly bringing large quantities of narcotics" to the state.
Cocaine and other stimulants have increasingly been linked to rising numbers of fatal drug overdoses in Philadelphia and the United States. Cocaine was found in more than 70% of Philadelphia's 1,413 fatal overdoses in 2022, the city's highest number of such deaths recorded in a year. Opioids mixed with stimulants, like cocaine and methamphetamine, accounted for the sharpest increases in deaths among Black and Hispanic people, who have accounted for a growing share of overdose deaths.
The drug trafficking investigation was aided by Philadelphia police, Pennsylvania State Police and multiple other law enforcement agencies in the region.
