Delco man gets prison in drug trafficking

NORRISTOWN » A Delaware County man was sent to prison after he admitted to trafficking methamphetamine in the Lower Merion area of Montgomery County.

Chase A. Smith, 29, of the 300 block of Sherbrook Boulevard, Upper Darby, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to four to eight years in a state correctional facility after he pleaded guilty to a felony charge of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, specifically methamphetamine.

Judge Thomas M. DelRicci imposed the sentence as part of a plea agreement.

Smith will receive credit for time he had been in jail since March 18, 2021, while awaiting court action on the charges.

An investigation began in February 2021, when Montgomery County detectives received information that Smith was selling methamphetamine to customers along City

Avenue in Lower Merion and Philadelphia, according to a criminal complaint.

During the investigation, a county detective acting in an undercover capacity contacted Smith by cellphone on March 4, 2021, and Smith agreed to sell the detective an “onion,” or one ounce of methamphetamine, for $500, according to the arrest affidavit. At 1:40 p.m. the undercover detective met Smith in the 100 block of Belmont Avenue in the Bala Cynwyd section of Lower Merion at which time the detective gave Smith $500 and Smith handed the detective a bag containing one ounce of suspected methamphetamine, according to court documents.

The undercover detective met Smith on two other occasions, on March 11 and March 18 at locations in Lower Merion, and on both occasions Smith sold the detective 1 pound of methamphetamine for $4,000, according to the arrest affidavit.

Smith was arrested after the March 18 drug deal and at that time detectives also recovered another bag containing about 1 pound of methamphetamine in Smith’s vehicle, court documents indicate.

During the investigation, detectives took possession of a total of 3 pounds and one ounce of methamphetamine.

When detectives interviewed Smith he admitted to selling methamphetamine to the undercover detective on three occasions, once at a gas station and twice on the parking lot of a restaurant in Lower Merion.