PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Seventeen people have been arrested for what authorities said was a decade-long violent drug trafficking organization plaguing a North Philadelphia neighborhood.
State authorities said the crew operated out of what looked like a coffee shop: Cumberland Coffee and Snacks, located along Cumberland Street, near Cleveland Street.
“It was determined that on the second floor, there was cooking of crack cocaine being done up there, and it was part of the entire logistics of that network for that organization,” said Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday.
The crew, led by Louis Alexander, would use the shop, as well as other businesses and homes, to wheel and deal their drugs, sometimes bringing violence to the neighborhood, officials said.
“This organization, without any doubt, valued their profit over human lives and the destruction of their neighborhood,” said Sunday.
In total, they executed 30 search warrants and seized $116,000, 27 guns, 130 pounds of weed, and 4 pounds of cocaine, along with fentanyl and other narcotics.
Senior Deputy Attorney General Michael Barry said this group — made up of men mostly in their 50s, 60s and 70s — has been a plight on the neighborhood.
“I could search through old documents I have, talking about 18th and Cumberland, Cleveland and Cumberland, and this drug trafficking organization going back to 2012, 2011 — they have been a blade on this neighborhood for well over a decade,” he said.
Alexander and 16 others face several charges, including corrupt organization, conspiracy, and drug and gun offenses.
