{"id":149569,"date":"2026-03-26T23:40:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T23:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/149569\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T23:40:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T23:40:13","slug":"lehigh-county-commissioner-accused-of-selling-drugs-saucon-source","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/149569\/","title":{"rendered":"Lehigh County Commissioner Accused of Selling Drugs \u2013 Saucon Source"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former Bethlehem municipal employee and current member of the Lehigh County Board of Commissioners is facing a long list of charges for allegedly selling drugs at locations throughout the county, including in the Southern Lehigh area.<\/p>\n

Lehigh County District Attorney Gavin Holihan announced the filing of criminal charges against 35-year-old Zachary Cole Borghi of Bethlehem on Wednesday in what his office said is part of a large-scale, grand jury-led drug investigation.<\/p>\n

After initial grand jury charges were announced last summer, the investigation remained ongoing, the DA\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n

At that time, Cole Borghi maintained his innocence and claimed the charges against him were politically motivated.<\/p>\n

A defiant Cole Borghi told Armchair Lehigh Valley<\/a> he would remain on the county Board of Commissioners, to which he was re-elected in November, and said he planned to pursue legal action against anyone who conspired to destroy his reputation.<\/p>\n

Holihan said Wednesday that as part of the ongoing grand jury investigation, search warrants for Cole Borghi\u2019s cell phone and Apple iCloud records were obtained by Lehigh County Drug Task Force detectives investigating his alleged drug dealing.<\/p>\n

Police said text messages they obtained show Cole Borghi conducting drug sales from November 2023 through August 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe locations those crimes occurred include\u00a0Cole Borghi\u2019s home in the 700 block of Spring Street in Bethlehem (Lehigh County); a relative\u2019s\u00a0home in the 300 block of 6th Avenue in Bethlehem (Lehigh County); Bethlehem City Hall, where Cole Borghi was employed (Northampton County); and Upper Saucon Township (Lehigh\u00a0County),\u201d a news release said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe investigation revealed a cocaine sale at Northampton County Community College while\u00a0Cole Borghi was attending the \u2018Peace and Justice Symposium\u2019 presented by the Lehigh Valley Justice Institute,\u201d it added. \u201cThe investigation also revealed that Cole Borghi purchased and sold cocaine from his home and\u00a0while working at Bethlehem City Hall.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the release about the charges against Cole Borghi, the district attorney\u2019s office shared copies of four criminal complaints which contain text message conversations in which he allegedly participated while arranging various drug sales.<\/p>\n

In a series of messages dated Dec. 25-26, 2023, Cole Borghi allegedly told a source who was attempting to purchase drugs from him, \u201cI work at city hall so I can\u2019t meet around here, but I can meet you on my lunch at 11?\u201d<\/p>\n

Another affidavit includes an alleged exchange between Cole Borghi and a source to arrange the sale of three \u201c8-balls\u201d of cocaine for $550 at a location on Chestnut Hill Road in Upper Saucon Township in July of last year, as well as a text in which he allegedly recommends that a buyer of drugs \u201cslow down and enjoy it\u201d and says \u201cthis shit is good and still has me going.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to published reports, Cole Borghi was employed as the City of Bethlehem\u2019s Right to Know Officer until his employment was terminated in August of last year, after the grand jury\u2019s initial findings were made public.<\/p>\n

A Democrat, Cole Borghi remains on the Lehigh County Board of Commissioners. At least one other commissioner has called for him to resign, but there is no mechanism to remove someone based on criminal allegations, Channel 69 News reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Among the charges Cole Borghi is facing are 89 felony counts of Criminal Use of a Communication Facility, 14 counts of Delivery of a Controlled Substance (Cocaine) and one count of Delivery of a Controlled Substance (Psilocybin Mushrooms).<\/p>\n

Following his arrest and a preliminary arraignment that was held Wednesday, Cole Borghi was remanded to the Lehigh County Jail in lieu of $500,000 straight bail, according to the DA\u2019s office and court records.<\/p>\n

The records did not list an attorney for Cole Borghi, whose next court date is an April 8 preliminary hearing before District Judge Tom Creighton.<\/p>\n

Note:\u00a0All individuals arrested or charged with a crime are presumed innocent until proven guilty. This story was compiled using information provided by the Lehigh County District Attorney\u2019s office and Lehigh County court records.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former Bethlehem municipal employee and current member of the Lehigh County Board of Commissioners is facing a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149570,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[1646,153,155,154,3229,10739,68305,11009,433,68306,2795,67818],"class_list":["post-149569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-arrest","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-charges","tag-cocaine","tag-dealing","tag-drugs","tag-lehigh-county","tag-texts","tag-upper-saucon-township","tag-zachary-cole-borghi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149569","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=149569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}