announced more than 100 additional criminal charges Wednesday against County Commissioner Zachary Cole-Borghi<\/a>, alleging he used his cellphone to conduct drug transactions over nearly two years.<\/p>\nProsecutors allege the activity occurred at multiple locations, including Cole-Borgi\u2019s home in the 700 block of Spring Street in Bethlehem, a relative\u2019s home in the 300 block of 6th Avenue, at Bethlehem City Hall \u2014where he was employed as the city\u2019s Right-to-Know officer \u2014 and in Upper Saucon Township.<\/p>\n
Investigators also allege Cole-Borghi facilitated a drug transaction during a meeting of the Lehigh County Board of Commissioners.<\/p>\n
Lengthy criminal complaints contained more than 150 pages of transcripts of messages allegedly sent between Cole-Borghi and cooperating sources for the prosecution. <\/p>\n
Those messages show negotiations on the price of drugs, including marijuana\/THC products and cocaine, as well as arranging for delivery and purchase.<\/p>\n
Some of those conversations are outlined below. <\/p>\n
October 29, 2024<\/p>\n
Cole-Borghi: Yo buddy<\/p>\n
Cole-Borghi: When you out of work today?<\/p>\n
Cooperating source: No work today bother man<\/p>\n
Cooperating source: I am free all day<\/p>\n
Cole-Borghi: Word. I need a half my guy. Can you meet me on my lunch break?<\/p>\n
Cooperating source: Yes when and where?<\/p>\n
Cooperating source: 65$ halves<\/p>\n
Cole-Borghi: Can you meet me at my house at like 11:30?<\/p>\n
Cooperating source: Yessir I will lyk when im on my way<\/p>\n
Cole-Borghi: Ok perfect and I\u2019ll let you know if my meeting runs over or shorter\u2026<\/p>\n
(Later) Cole-Borghi: It\u2019s just finishing up my guy I\u2019m at city hall but still should be right there!<\/p>\n
Cole-Borghi: I\u2019m sorry man, the mayor loves to talk<\/p>\n
Cooperating source: You all good boss man take your time I\u2019m in no rush<\/p>\n
Cole-Borghi: If you want you can put it in the fridge on the front porch and I\u2019ll send you the money so you don\u2019t have wait<\/p>\n
April 23, 2025<\/p>\n
Cole-Borghi: I\u2019m at my commissioner meeting now. Could be done anytime between 8 and 930 but I\u2019ll hit you up and let you know when I\u2019m coming.<\/p>\n
Cooperating source: Ok<\/p>\n
Cole-Borghi: Ending soon buddy we\u2019re at the closing agenda items.<\/p>\n
May 14, 2025<\/p>\n
Cole-Borghi: Need 3 balls<\/p>\n
Cooperating source: I got u stand by<\/p>\n
Cole-Borghi: OK<\/p>\n
Cole-Borghi: I will have to meet before my meeting though hopefully before 530<\/p>\n
Cooperating source: Bro when.You orders u have to give me a heads up especially with today weather u got give me few hrs heads up buddy<\/p>\n
Cole-Borghi: Got you. I assumed you were in the area.<\/p>\n
Cooperating source: Naw bro I work in New York.<\/p>\n
Cooperating source: I be haveign my peoples out thefe<\/p>\n
Cooperating source: I can have it in a hr<\/p>\n
Cole-Borghi: I got you. Let me know if your bro can meet me I should be able to be on the meeting through my phone if anything<\/p>\n
July 1, 2025<\/p>\n
Cole-Borghi: Yo buddy I gotta come by for 3 balls. I got the money early this time lol<\/p>\n
Cooperating source: Call u in 15 min it stand by<\/p>\n
Cole-Borghi: I cam come after work at 4 if that is better?<\/p>\n
Cole-Borghi: Not in a rush I just wanted to get it set up<\/p>\n
Cooperating source: Bet I got you<\/p>\n
Cooperating source: I can get your order done maybe hsve it ready by 4 if I send break now ima go see my guy<\/p>\n
Cooperating source: Waiting on him now<\/p>\n
Cooperating source: Trying get everything in motion<\/p>\n
Cole-Borghi: In a meeting with my boss buddy what\u2019s up<\/p>\n
Cooperating source: Bet my bad<\/p>\n
Cooperating source: Hit me when u can<\/p>\n
Cole-Borghi: Sending the money now though buddy<\/p>\n
July 16, 2025<\/p>\n
Cole-Borghi: Yo buddy<\/p>\n
Cooperating source: Yoo gang<\/p>\n
Cole-Borghi: I\u2019m actually gonna need 3<\/p>\n
Cooperating source: Send the money now I\u2019ll have it ready for you<\/p>\n
Cole-Borghi: You\u2019re not gonna have to go to New York again right? (laughing)<\/p>\n
Cooperating source: Naw (laughing)<\/p>\n
Cole-Borghi: Ok cool. Want me to meet you on my lunch break?<\/p>\n
Cooperating source: Yeah what time your break I just call my man\u2019s he gonna have that ready for me<\/p>\n
Cole-Borghi: 11am<\/p>\n
Cooperating source: If I send now I can have ready by 12<\/p>\n
Cole-Borghi was taken into custody Wednesday morning in Bethlehem, arraigned on the new charges and sent to Lehigh County Prison, Holihan’s office said in a release.<\/p>\n
Bail in the new criminal cases was set at $500,000 straight cash.<\/p>\n
The new charges stem from a broader investigation tied to the 12th Investigating Grand Jury, which previously identified Cole-Borghi as one of about 40 people involved in a large-scale, multi-state drug ring<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Editor’s note: The cellphone messages included here are verbatim from the criminal complaint, unedited, including grammatical errors. BETHLEHEM,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,68024,68025,68026,68027,68028],"class_list":["post-148990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-lehigh-county-commissioner-zach-cole-borghi","tag-new-charges-against-zach-cole-borghi","tag-zach-cole-borghi-bethlehem-city-hall","tag-zach-cole-borghi-criminal-complaint","tag-zachary-cole-borghi-charges"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148990","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=148990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}