83 arrested in drug raids

A day-long series of raids in Southwest and West Philadelphia today culminated with police serving 70 warrants and arresting 83 people on drug charges.
"We took a lot of bad people off the streets today," Narcotics Field Unit Capt. Debra Frazier said during a news conference tonight at the 19th District's headquarters, 61st Street and Haverford Avenue.
She said police and U.S. Marshals confiscated $248,468 worth of drugs, $34,204 in cash, 13 firearms and three automobiles from the busts.

Among those arrested was John Thomas White, 73, who cops found with 300 packs of crack cocaine and a handgun with an obliterated serial number inside a house on Regent Street near 54th in Southwest Philadelphia.
Police arrested an Upper Darby man, Demond Bymun, who apparently rented the property to White. Frazier said Bymun rented three other houses on that same block of Regent to drug dealers as well. Frazier said the daylong raid was the third executed by cops in different sections of the city this summer based on community tips.