Montco D.A.: Meth scheme grounded before taking off

He flew his private plane to Philadelphia to mourn his father's death.

But the solemn occasion did not stop James Michael Handzus from conducting a little illicit business while he was here, Montgomery County prosecutors said.

Officers arrested the 51-year-old and his girlfriend Tamara Louise Vincent, 41 - both of Rifle, Colo. - on Friday as they allegedly tried to set up a $27,000 drug deal a day after Handzus' father died.

The pair offered to sell a pound of methamphetamine they had flown in from Las Vegas to an undercover officer so they could pay their expenses and earn some extra money, Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said at a news conference Tuesday.

"We're talking about an enormous amount of drugs that would have been placed on the street just with that transaction," she said, standing in front of Handzus' powder blue 1959 Piper Comanche, a fixed-wing, single-engine aircraft.

Authorities seized the plane - which Handzus named "My Lady" - at Wings Field, a private airstrip in Whitpain Township, shortly after making the arrests.

According to court filings, investigators learned this month that Handzus and Vincent had made several cross-country flights to deliver drugs to the area. But it was a posting on Handzus' Facebook page that tipped them off that the couple might be in the area last week.

"If I can fix my plane, we will be leaving this morn for Philly to see my father for the last time," he wrote in a posting dated April 16.

Handzus' father, a retired Philadelphia firefighter, died Thursday, according to a death notice from the Koller Funeral Home in Roxborough. His funeral was scheduled for Tuesday.

But as Vincent would later allegedly tell the undercover officer during a meeting Friday at a restaurant in Plymouth, she and her boyfriend would often bring meth with them when they came back to Philadelphia to visit his family.

The duo told the officer that for $27,000, they would sell him a pound of meth, and promised discounts on future loads, according to the probable-cause affidavits filed for their arrests. But this time, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents and the Whitpain and Plymouth police were waiting.

The arrest marks the second time in recent months that a drug shipment from Las Vegas has led to a significant bust in Montgomery County and highlights an emerging pipeline for illegal narcotics, Ferman said.

In December, seven men were arrested for their alleged involvement in a drug ring that stretched from southern Mexico to King of Prussia. A shipment from Las Vegas to the Philadelphia suburb - delivered by a deaf and mute man driving cross-country - provided the crucial seizure to bring that network down.

Handzus and Vincent have been arraigned on charges of possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance, criminal use of a communication facility, and possession of drug paraphernalia.

They remained in custody at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility late Tuesday on $500,000 bail each. It was not immediately clear whether either had retained an attorney.

Prosecutors are seeking criminal forfeiture of their plane, which will be auctioned off or put to use by drug enforcement authorities if a judge grants their motion, the District Attorney's Office said.