Federal authorities announced Friday that 33 members of one of Philadelphia's most entrenched drug-trafficking networks have been charged after a yearslong investigation of a sprawling operation that dominated the city's Kensington neighborhood for nearly a decade.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the Weymouth Street Drug Trafficking Organization operated "one of the most prolific drug blocks in the city" from January 2016 through this month.
The group allegedly trafficked cocaine, crack cocaine, heroin, and fentanyl, maintaining control of its territory through violence and intimidation.
Federal agents arrested 24 people in coordinated raids Friday morning. Eight others were already in custody, and one remains at large.
FBI Director Kash Patel praised the arrests as a major victory in the fight against violent drug networks.
"We have permanently removed a drug trafficking organization off the streets of Philadelphia," Patel said. "They're going to stop pouring guns, chemicals, and drugs into our communities — and our children are safer today."
U.S. Attorney David Metcalf called the case "the largest federal prosecution of this century" for his office and said it struck at "the heart of the opioid crisis" in the Philly neighborhood.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche emphasized that traffickers who "poison our communities" will face the full force of federal law.
The neighborhood has long been the epicenter of Philadelphia's opioid epidemic. The city has consistently reported one of the highest overdose death rates among major U.S. cities, with fentanyl involved in more than 80% of fatal overdoses in recent years, according to the Philadelphia Department of Public Health.
Once dubbed the "Walmart of Heroin," Kensington, Philadelphia's drug markets have drawn national scrutiny as images of encampments and drug-related deaths circulated in media reports.
Experts note that systemic poverty, housing insecurity, and decades of industrial decline have made the neighborhood especially vulnerable.
Programs such as the Kensington Initiative, a multiagency task force formed in 2018, have targeted large-scale traffickers, leading to hundreds of arrests and the seizure of millions of dollars' worth of drugs.
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.