Days after the FBI announced the takedown of one of Kensington’s largest drug trafficking gangs, the state attorney general, the mayor of Philadelphia, district attorneys and police leaders in southeastern Pennsylvania will hold a press conference Wednesday to announce a “milestone” in combating fentanyl traffickers in the region.
Attorney General Dave Sunday, Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker and Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel, Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer, Montgomery County DA Kevin Steele and other law enforcement leaders will be part of the announcement.
According to the mayor’s public schedule, officials are expected to announce the “seizures of 50 million fentanyl doses statewide.”
The 2:30 p.m. press conference will stream in the video player above, on the CBS News app and wherever CBS News Philadelphia is streaming.
Last Friday, the FBI conducted raids in Kensington in connection with a yearslong drug investigation into the Weymouth Street Drug Trafficking Organization. Federal prosecutors announced the indictment of 33 people involved with the drug gang, Jose Antonio Morales Nieves and Ramon Roman-Montanez, two of the drug trafficking organization’s leaders.
Federal prosecutors allege the Weymouth Street drug gang ran its organization like a business since at least January 2016. The FBI seized “substantial volumes” of fentanyl and other narcotics and recovered dozens of guns off the streets during Friday’s raids.
“This is one of the largest and most impressive gang takedowns that I’ve ever seen,” FBI Director Kash Patel said Friday. “Not only are we removing guns and gang members and robbers and firearms, we are removing an entire coordinated section of gang violence permanently off the streets.”
U.S. Attorney David Metcalf said Friday the Weymouth Street Drug Trafficking Organization investigation was part of a joint violent crime initiative with federal, state and local law enforcement called “Project Safe Neighborhood Recon,” or “PSN Recon.”
“[PSN Recon] is ultimately a criminal intelligence program. It’s a way for all of us to consolidate and collect the intelligence from the entire law enforcement community and identify, target and investigate the worst violent actors in this city,” Metcalf said Friday. “Because cases like this don’t get formulated based on the word of one confidential informant or one ballistics match. You only put together cases like this, you only stop the violence, by targeting the worst actors based on the best intelligence. And the best intelligence doesn’t live in one case, it lives everywhere.”
Metcalf said last week law enforcement will share more details on PSN Recon, but it’s unclear if Wednesday’s press conference is related to the initiative.
This is a developing story and will be updated.