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Dozens arrested in Chester drug investigation

Authorities arrested 35 people Friday in what prosecutors called a takedown of a drug-trafficking organization that they believe has contributed to an alarming spike in homicides this year in Chester.

Zane Memeger, United States attorney with the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and other law-enforcement officers gathered in Philadelphia on Friday afternoon, September 26, 2014. They announced the arrest of more than 30 people for distribution of drugs in Chester, Pa. ( ALEJANDRO A. ALVAREZ / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER )
Zane Memeger, United States attorney with the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and other law-enforcement officers gathered in Philadelphia on Friday afternoon, September 26, 2014. They announced the arrest of more than 30 people for distribution of drugs in Chester, Pa. ( ALEJANDRO A. ALVAREZ / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER )Read more

Authorities arrested 35 people Friday in what prosecutors called a takedown of a drug-trafficking organization that they believe has contributed to an alarming spike in homicides this year in Chester.

From stash houses scattered throughout the streets, dealers hid their products in playgrounds, mailboxes, and trash cans, investigators said, and sold them across Chester, including near the campuses of Widener University and the Frederick Douglass Christian School. Officials said the organization had long held the city's east side in a "choke hold."

Prosecutors say its purported leader - William "Sabor" Dorsey, 31 - built a narcotics empire near Rose and Upland Streets worth more than $1.8 million, and was responsible for distributing more than 25 kilograms of crack cocaine, heroin, and marijuana between September 2012 and September 2014.

"The people who live in the city of Chester, particularly in the area surrounding Rose and Upland Streets, deserve a break," U.S. Attorney Zane David Memeger said at a news conference in Philadelphia announcing the arrests. "They deserve better."

The neighborhood, not far from Widener and I-95, is scarred with abandoned homes and boarded-up windows. After the raids, it was quiet.

Several residents said that they had heard sirens and shouting in the morning but stayed inside and did not ask questions. Some said conditions in the neighborhood had worsened in recent years but did not want to talk about the arrests for fear of retaliation from suspects' families or other dealers.

"There's always police coming through here, so you never know what it's about," said one 45-year-old man. "If they think they got some of the big dogs, I guess that's a good thing."

In addition to Dorsey, the 261-count indictment unsealed Friday also charges two of the group's alleged main drug suppliers - Donald "Kas" Womack Sr., 49, and Paris "Pay May" Church, 52 - along with 19 others, with various counts of conspiracy, drug trafficking, and firearms violations.

An additional 14 indictments charge various other members of the group with drug transactions between 2012 and 2014. The case was jointly investigated by the Delaware County District Attorney's Office, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, the FBI, Chester police, and Pennsylvania state police.

The maximum sentences for Dorsey, Womack, Church, and many other defendants would be life imprisonment.

Dorsey and his codefendants were not charged Friday with any acts of violence, but the District Attorney's Office blamed their business for the rising homicide rate that has plagued Chester in recent months.

So far this year, 24 homicides have been reported in the city, the first time in at least a decade the number has reached that level this early, according to state data.

"People in Chester have expressed frustration - they have expressed outrage - over the violence in their neighborhoods," District Attorney Jack Whelan said. "We are reaching epidemic levels in our homicide rate."

Memeger declined to say whether any of those charged Friday were suspects in unsolved homicides. But he said several members of the organization relied on guns to protect their territory and threaten outsiders who tried to sell drugs within it.

"Very often in cases like this, information comes to light that allows you to solve homicides," he added.

Chester, with a population of 34,000, has long struggled with gun violence. In 2013, six homicides were reported by the end of May; by the end of the year, there were 22.

Residents have spoken out against increasing violence. And in May, officials announced "Operation City Surge," an initiative with the District Attorney's Office and state and federal law enforcement agencies that has increased police presence, targeted straw purchases of guns, and involved federal agencies in crime-fighting.

"When you have a community blighted by violence, sometimes they give up hope," said Ed J. Hanko, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Philadelphia office. "We will continue to show up in that community until we eradicate the problem - block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood."

Many Chester residents agreed it would take more than a few arrests and a news conference to make them hopeful again.

"It's nothing we haven't seen before," said Monk Foreman, 61, a lifelong Chester resident, who said he was a former drug dealer who now works as a landscaper. "In this city, we don't have recreation, we don't have jobs. It strikes me as a good thing to take these guys off the street, but the minute they're gone, you get more stepping up to the plate to take their spot."

Gloria, a 48-year-old woman who did not want her last name used, was picking up her granddaughter from the Chester Upland School of the Arts on Friday. She lives on the west side, where she said she heard gunshots every few nights, and she rolled her eyes when asked if she had heard about the wave of arrests.

"They keep locking them up, but it continues," she said. "It's continuous. I guess the police try to do the best they can, but it's hard."