15 charged in alleged Chester-based cocaine ring

Pennsylvania state police arrested 11 alleged drug dealers and issued warrants for four more Friday following a yearlong investigation into a cocaine trafficking organization at a Chester housing project.

At a news conference at the state police Belmont barracks in Philadelphia, Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane said the dealers - who range in age from 22 to 61 - sold between 1 and 3 kilograms of cocaine every week in and around the Ruth L. Bennett Homes.

All defendants were charged with corrupt organization, narcotics violations, conspiracy, criminal use of a communications facility, and dealing in proceeds of unlawful activities.

Although police had been aware of drug trafficking at the project "for some time," their investigations were stymied by the buildings themselves, Kane said.

"The obstacles that arose . . . came from the physical layout of the development," she said. "The development was laid out in the shape of a horseshoe, making surveillance very difficult."

With only a one-way, horseshoe-shape road going in and out, police had nowhere to park without being noticed, according to court documents.

Beginning in January 2015, the Chester Police Department worked with the Attorney General's Office and the Delaware County District Attorney's Drug Task Force to develop confidential informants and secure court-ordered wiretaps, authorities said.

"The war on drugs rages on, but today law enforcement is claiming a victory," Kane said.

According to Kane, between July and December 2015 police intercepted more than 7,000 phone calls and texts between the alleged head of the organization, James Townsend, 37, of Chester, and others allegedly involved in the trafficking. They allegedly included Townsend's brothers Darrell Burton, 41, and Lafenus Burton, 43, both of Chester, and the owner of the alleged stash house, Cheron Jackson, 34, of Chester.

Kane said authorities determined that Townsend's "primary supplier" was David Toney, 44, who has houses in Philadelphia and Delaware.

When police executed search warrants on Toney's houses, they found five guns - three of which had been reported stolen - along with $50,000 in cash and drug packaging materials, Kane said.

A search warrant on Jackson's residence - which is not in the Bennett Homes - yielded about 2 kilograms of cocaine, police said.

Kane said that it is believed that during the time the organization was under surveillance, from January to December 2105, the group moved between 50 and 150 kilograms of cocaine and sold between $5 million and $15 million of the drug on the streets of Chester.

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