DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — Six men are charged in connection with a drug ring that Bucks County officials say was using shipping services to send methamphetamine and cocaine from Southern California to the Philadelphia suburbs.
The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office says Matthew Byrne, 43, of Broomall made multiple trips a month to Los Angeles to buy large quantities of what investigators say were methamphetamine and cocaine manufactured in Mexico.
Byrne is accused of packing kilos of the drugs in large Bluetooth speakers and shipping them from the Los Angeles area to various residences in Bucks and Montgomery counties, the majority of them to his brother’s house in Bristol Township.
Byrne’s 47-year-old brother Joseph is also charged in the ring. According to the criminal complaint, he told investigators his brother was trafficking the drugs to pay his kids’ tuition and to make sure they were “set up.”
Three of the packages were intercepted at a shipping facility in Kentucky, where authorities say they recovered more than $1 million worth of drugs.
The Byrnes, as well as Khalik Kemp, 34, from Philadelphia and 55-year-old Christian Garwood of Flourtown all face counts of corrupt organizations, possession with intent to manufacture or deliver, intent to promote and criminal use of a communication facility. All four men are held at Bucks County Correctional Facility on bail ranging from $1 million to $5 million.
Two California men, Ralph Brooks, 42, and Chaz Harness-Walker, 40, are also charged, but are not currently in custody.