More than a dozen people suspected of trafficking tens of thousands of dollars worth of cocaine into a Chester, Delaware County housing development have been charged after a yearlong investigation by the Pennsylvania State Police, Attorney General's Office and Chester City Police.
AG Kathleen Kane announced the charges Friday morning at a news conference at Pennsylvania State Police's Troop K barracks on Belmont Avenue in Philadelphia. She said the investigation, dubbed "Operation Bennett Trifecta" after the Bennett Homes, a Chester housing complex on which it centered, began in January 2015.
Kane said that confidential informants cooperated with investigators and an undercover operation within the development, including hours of surveillance on the street and more than 7,000 intercepted text messages and phone calls, ensued over several months.
Investigators determined that three brothers -- James Townsend, 37, Darrell Burton, 41, and Lafenus Burton, 43 -- were bringing large amounts of cocaine into Chester, Kane said. The ring operated out of the Bennett Homes.
Kane identified 44-year-old David Toney, whom she said has residences in Philadelphia and Delaware, as the trafficker responsible for providing the cocaine to the three brothers. She said when investigators executed a search warrant at Toney's homes in Philadelphia and Delaware, they found more than $50,000 and five guns, three of which were reported stolen.
She said Toney would supply Townsend with "one to three loads" of cocaine a week, and provided him and his brothers with 50 to 150 kilos of the drug with a street value of $5 million to $15 million over the 50-week period during which the investigation was conducted.
Other people charged in connection with the ring, including some whom officials identified as street-level dealers and others who they said helped to stash drugs, are: Cheron Jackson, 34, Byron Parker, 40, Chris Jones, 43, Anthony Reaves, 36, Louis Freeman, 45, Darryl Bannister, 38, Tyrone Pringle, 28, Dron Adams, 22, Kemp Hill, 27, Ronald South, 40, and Wilbert Jones, 61. All but Toney reside in Chester.
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Authorities said 11 of those involved have already been arrested, and warrants are active for the remaining four. Kane praised a collaborative effort in bringing the investigation to fruition, adding that the horseshoe shape of the housing development made surveillance especially difficult.
