7 arrested in alleged Pa. drug ring

Seven alleged drug dealers have been charged with transporting cocaine and methamphetamine from Philadelphia to Indiana County following a federal wiretap investigation.

The U.S. attorney’s office said Tuesday that the seven are named in a complaint filed in U.S. District Court, although it had yet to be placed on the public docket.

The defendants are Jelahn Williams, 35, Malik Byers, 28, Dayton Melton, 22, all of Philadelphia, along with Ahmed Doumbia, 26, Romello Johnson-Holland, 24, and Tamir WashingtonJenkins, 23, all of Indiana. A seventh defendant, Isaiah Daniels-Wheeler, 24, is from Elkins Park, Montgomery County.

U.S. Attorney Scott Brady and the district attorney in Indiana County, Bob Manzi, said in a statement the arrests were part of a joint federal-state effort to disrupt drug traffickers preying on communities in Indiana County.

Agents and police said the alleged dealers conspired to transport crack cocaine from Philadelphia from Jan. 7 to April 18.

Mr. Williams, Mr. Byers and Mr. Doumbia made multiple trips from Indiana to Philadelphia to buy crack from Mr. Melton and Mr. Daniels-Wheeler and others and drove it back to stash locations in Indiana, including an apartment rented by Mr. Johnson-Holland, according to a complaint. The crack was then distributed to customers and street-level dealers.

In a separate complaint, agents and police said they completed a controlled buy of meth from Mr. Washington-Jenkins on Oct. 10 in which he provided 54 grams of the drug to a confidential source in exchange for $1,600.