{"id":154711,"date":"2026-04-01T21:33:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T21:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/154711\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T21:33:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T21:33:08","slug":"17-arrested-in-north-philadelphia-drug-bust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/154711\/","title":{"rendered":"17 arrested in North Philadelphia drug bust"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday<\/a> said his office, in collaboration with other law enforcement agencies, has \u201ceradicated\u201d a group that prepared and sold drugs out of a North Philadelphia<\/a> corner store.<\/p>\n

Authorities in recent days arrested and charged 17 alleged members of the gang, which they say trafficked narcotics \u2014 primarily cocaine and crack \u2014 for years in the area of 18th and Cumberland streets. Louis Alexander, 56, is accused of being the group\u2019s leader and was among those apprehended.<\/p>\n

The AG\u2019s Office named the probe \u201cOperation Cocaine and Coffee\u201d because they believe the organization cooked cocaine and sold it out of a business called \u201cCumberland Coffee & Snacks.\u201d Sunday said the storefront, at Cumberland and Cleveland streets, \u201cwas essentially a front utilized by Louis Alexander and his crew.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were out there the day the warrants were searched,\u201d Senior Deputy Attorney Michael Barry told reporters at a news conference Wednesday. \u201cThere was no coffee pots at the coffee shop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cumberland Coffee & Snacks was one of 30 properties raided last week, authorities said. Much of the activity was in the immediate neighborhood, including searches at a nearby bar and barbershop, though warrants were also served in Delaware County and Gloucester County, New Jersey, according to the AG\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

Police confiscated 27 guns, about 4 pounds of cocaine and more than 130 pounds of marijuana at the various locations, law enforcement officials said. Sunday said his office is looking into whether any of the firearms can be connected to any shootings or other crimes.<\/p>\n

He noted that many of those charged in the bust are older than those typically associated with Philadelphia gangs.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the defendants here are in their 50s, 60s and 70s,\u201d Sunday added. \u201cMany of these defendants have been at this a very long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barry said detectives have been investigating the Cumberland Street crew for \u201cover a decade.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Alexander has been charged with drug offenses, corrupt organizations, conspiracy and other crimes. His bail was set at 10% of $750,000. No defense attorney was listed on court documents Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\tKeywords<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tNorth Philadelphia drug bust,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t Philadelphia crime news,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t 17 arrested Philadelphia,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t Dave Sunday,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t Pennsylvania Attorney General,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t Operation Cocaine and Coffee,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t cocaine trafficking,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t Cumberland Street Philadelphia,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t drug raid Philadelphia,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t organized crime Pennsylvania\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday said his office, in collaboration with other law enforcement agencies, has \u201ceradicated\u201d a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[70155,70157,70158,4599,70159,70153,70156,70160,4601,69,70154,71,70],"class_list":["post-154711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-17-arrested-philadelphia","tag-cocaine-trafficking","tag-cumberland-street-philadelphia","tag-dave-sunday","tag-drug-raid-philadelphia","tag-north-philadelphia-drug-bust","tag-operation-cocaine-and-coffee","tag-organized-crime-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-attorney-general","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-crime-news","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154711","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=154711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}