![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/REG-L-ReadingRaidGun-01.jpg\")
A .40-caliber Glock handgun with a \u201cswitch\u201d is among the evidence seized by Berks County detectives in a raid at the residence of Angel Benitez in the 100 block of West Elm Street on Friday. (Courtesy of Berks County detectives)<\/p>\nA Reading man was arrested on drug and weapons charges after authorities raided his residence Friday morning and seized drugs with a street value of more than $10,000.<\/p>\n
Angel Benitez, 52, of the 100 block of West Elm Street, was arraigned later Friday by District Judge Alvin B. Robinson on charges of persons not to possess firearms; altering or obliterating marks of identification; prohibited offensive weapons; receiving stolen property; possessing and intending to deliver cocaine and marijuana; and possession of drug paraphernalia.<\/p>\n
Benitez was committed to the Berks County Jail in lieu of $800,000.<\/p>\n
Berks County detectives said Benitez has a prior conviction that prohibits him from legally possessing a firearm.<\/p>\n
According to county detectives:<\/p>\n
As part of a narcotics and firearms investigation in Reading that began in January, the Berks County Drug Task Force obtained search warrants for Benitez, his residence and his cellular device.<\/p>\n
The Berks County Emergency Response Team served the warrants at Benitez\u2019s residence Friday at 6:05 a.m., and\u00a0Benitez was taken into custody without incident.<\/p>\n
A .40-caliber Glock handgun with a \u201cswitch\u201d is among the evidence seized by Berks County detectives in a raid at the residence of Angel Benitez in the 100 block of West Elm Street on Friday. (Courtesy of Berks County detectives)<\/p>\n
Detectives seized the following:<\/p>\n
\u2022 100 grams of suspected crack cocaine.<\/p>\n
\u2022 23 prepackaged bags of suspect marijuana.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Drug paraphernalia, including packaging materials for cocaine and marijuana.<\/p>\n
\u2022 A .40-caliber Glock handgun equipped with an installed \u201cswitch.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 An extended ammunition magazine and additional ammunition.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Several digital scales.<\/p>\n
\u2022 More than $500.<\/p>\n
The estimated street value of the seized narcotics is\u00a0$10,115.<\/p>\n
Detectives noted the \u201cswitch\u201d is an extremely dangerous device designed to bypass the safety mechanics of a semi-automatic firearm. Also known as a machine gun conversion device, the illegal attachment allows a handgun to fire multiple roundswith a single pull of the trigger, effectively turning it into a fully automatic weapon.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese devices pose an extreme threat to public safety and law enforcement because the rapid-fire rate makes the firearm incredibly difficult to control,\u201d they said in a release. \u201cSwitches often lead to stray bullets and unintended casualties, capable of turning a targeted incident into a mass-casualty event in seconds.\u201d<\/p>\n
Detectives said the investigation continues, and anyone with information is encouraged to contact the county detectives at 610-478-7171.<\/p>\n
Anonymous tips may also be submitted to Crime Alert Berks County by calling 877-373-9913, using the ALERTBERKS app, or by texting ALERTBERKS and the tip to 847411.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Reading man was arrested on drug and weapons charges after authorities raided his residence Friday morning and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,202,182,139,28,736,128,130,129,706],"class_list":["post-140021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-top-stories-reg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}