Spring City man sentenced for drug activity
NORRISTOWN >> A Spring City man who told police he sells drugs to make a living or to get proceeds to use to bail friends out of jail faces court supervision for dealing methamphetamine in Pottstown and King of Prussia.
Ryan Edward Coggins, 33, of the 300 block of Yost Avenue, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to 11½ to 23 months in the county jail after he pleaded guilty to charges of possession with intent to deliver methamphetamine and theft of property in connection with incidents that occurred in Pottstown and King of Prussia between September and October 2017.
Judge Todd D. Eisenberg gave Coggins credit for the time he’s been in jail since October 2017 and Coggins was expected to be quickly paroled. However, with an additional three years of probation ordered by the judge, Coggins still faces several years of supervision by probation officers.
Coggins was charged in connection with an Oct. 10, 2017, incident at the Valley Forge Casino in King of Prussia.
That investigation began when troopers with the Bureau of Gaming Enforcement were called to the gaming floor for a report that a patron mistakenly left his cellphone next to a slot machine and that the phone was subsequently taken by another patron. Video surveillance footage linked Coggins to taking the phone and state police then went to Coggins’ hotel room, according to a criminal complaint.
As hotel officials evicted Coggins from the hotel he denied taking the cellphone. However, state police later found the cellphone under a mattress in the room, according to the criminal complaint.
A half-hour after he was evicted from the hotel room, Coggins was observed returning to the room and hotel security officials and police followed.
When police entered the room they noticed Coggins was not wearing his shoes. Inside the shoes that were next to Coggins police found four, clear bags that contained white rocks later determined to be methamphetamine, according to the criminal complaint.
Coggins subsequently told police that the rock was “speed” and that he had obtained it from an unidentified male at the casino earlier that evening, according
“He related that he would have made $900 from the sale of the four bags of speed and that the bags weighed 112 grams.” — Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Louis Rosenthal alleged in the arrest affidavit
“He further related that he sells drugs to make a living and has used the proceeds of selling in the past to bail out friends from jail.” — Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Louis Rosenthal alleged in the arrest affidavit
to court documents.
“He further related that he sells drugs to make a living and has used the proceeds of selling in the past to bail out friends from jail,” state police Trooper Louis Rosenthal alleged in the arrest affidavit. “He related that he would have made $900 from the sale of the four bags of speed and that the bags weighed 112 grams.”
Coggins also was linked to illegal drug activity in Pottstown in September 2017 when an informant told police that Coggins was selling large amounts of methamphetamine, according to a criminal complaint filed by Pottstown Police Corporal Brian Weitzel.
The search of a vehicle linked to Coggins uncovered 17 individually packaged clear bags that contained a solid white material that was tested and determined to be methamphetamine, according to the arrest affidavit.