The FBI and local police this week took down an infamous open-air drug market in Philadelphia and crushed the criminal organization that had been supplying it for nearly a decade, authorities announced.
In a Friday news conference, FBI Director Kash Patel and federal prosecutors briefed news media on an indictment that charged 33 alleged members of what they called the Weymouth Street Drug Trafficking Organization and touted what can be accomplished when federal and local law enforcement work together.
The briefing followed raids and the arrest of 24 suspects that day, with eight already in custody from earlier busts. One defendant remains at large. Eleven federal search warrants were also served.
Patel told reporters that he had no direct role in the investigation which had been in the works for many months. But he said wanted to join agents and police in Philadelphia to promote the operation as a model of effective coordination between federal and local law enforcement.
âEveryone in America should be looking at this takedown,â Patel told reporters. âThis takedown is how you safeguard cities from coast to coast⊠You go after the organizations that are inflicting pain across America in each and every city. This is one of the largest and most impressive gang take downs Iâve ever seen.â
The director added, âWe have permanently removed a drug trafficking organization off the streets of Philadelphia.â
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Keven Bethel said the case represented a shift in treating open-air drug markets from isolated street dealers to a wider public safety threat involving criminal organizations.
âThis is a model we can keep running,â he said.
U.S. Attorney David Metcalf said the case centered on an open air-market in the the 3100 block of Weymouth Street in the Kensington district of Philadelphia. The street organization allegedly used shootings, murder, and assaults violence to enforce its territory and retaliated against witnesses who cooperated with law enforcement.
Conspiracy charges are included in the indictment that alleges the organization operated from January 2016 through October 2025 to peddle fentanyl, heroin, crack cocaine, and cocaine.
âItâs a massive drug-trafficking conspiracy spanning nearly a decade, the largest federal indictment this century brought by our district,â Metcalf said. âWe targeted it like a precision missile at Kensingtonâs epicenter.â
Most arrests occurred in Kensington, with others in Puerto Rico, Delaware, and New Jersey, authorities said.
Nine tactical teams hit several locations, recovering dozens of firearms and large amounts of narcotics from alleged stash locations, FBI Special Agent in Charge Wayne Jacobs said.
FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino reposted video of one of the raids on X, writing, âWhen President Trump told us to âgo get em,â he wasnât kidding. And neither were we.â
According to a Fox News Digital report of the indictment:
Prosecutors said the organization was allegedly led by Jose Antonio Morales Nieves, 45, of Luquillo, Puerto Rico, known as âFlaco,â who âessentially ownedâ the block and charged rent to other dealers; Ramon Roman-Montanez, 40, of Philadelphia, known as âViejo,â who managed daily operations and organized shifts; and Nancy Rios-Valentin, 33, of Philadelphia, who also oversaw finances and shift schedules.
âFor too long the Weymouth Street drug organization flooded Kensington with drugs and terrorized residents with horrific acts of violence and intimidation,â Jacobs said. âThat ended today.â
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of Below the Line and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
