Convicted drug dealer charged with trafficking fentanyl
UPPER DARBY >> A convicted drug offender is back behind bars, this time for allegedly trafficking fentanyl.
“He’s selling death for $10 a bag,” Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood said of 38-year-old Kenyatta Harris.
Harris was arrested Friday morning after Upper Darby police and members of the Delaware County Drug Task Force executed a search warrant at his residence in the 400 block of Timberlake Road, Chitwood said.
“He was sleeping on a couch. Right under him was a loaded .45-caliber handgun,” later found to have been reported stolen from Montgomery County, the superintendent said.
The search warrant was preceded by the purchase of heroin by an undercover officer from Harris, Chitwood said. When investigators arrived, they thought they would be taking some additional heroin off the street.
Instead, along with the firearm they confiscated 155 bags containing white powder. Chitwood said six of the bags were field tested and came up positive for pure fentanyl. “What he is selling is pure death,” Chitwood said. “He’s redistributing fentanyl.”
The six packages of fentanyl and the remaining suspected packages of fentanyl were found in a safe on top of the dining table. Also found in the safe were bags of crack cocaine cut with fentanyl, razor blades, $101 cash and materials used to package drugs.
Harris was charged with drug possession, possession with the intent to manufacture or deliver, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of a prohibited firearm and receiving stolen property.
He’s being held at the county prison in lieu of $100,000 cash bail. A preliminary hearing is listed for Oct. 6.
According to Chitwood, Harris’ rap sheet dates back to when he was a juvenile, and includes drug offenses.
“We busted him years ago on 69th Street … He did a couple years in prison,” Chitwood said, referring to a May 2007 arrest.
Calling fentanyl “a new wave of addiction,” Chitwood noted it’s 50 to 100 more potent than morphine and 25 to 50 times more potent than heroin.