Ardmore Man Included in Million-Dollar Drug Bust at Drexel

A 34-year-old Ardmore man was one of five people arrested five in connection with a million-dollar LSD ring operating on Drexel University’s campus, the Philadelphia District Attorney's office said this week. 

Wesley Crawford, of Haverford Road in Ardmore, along with Raphael Zappala, 33, and Joshua Dassay, 31, both of Philadelphia, charged with Delivery, Possession with Intent to Deliver, Conspiracy, Use of a Communication Device to Facilitate a Narcotics Transaction, and Endangering the Welfare of a Child (EWOC), the DA's office said.

For a gallery of the suspects on the NBC10 website, click here.

The defendants are facing the EWOC charge because an infant was at the scene of an overnight raid on the 4800 block of Florence Street in Philadelphia, conducted by the District Attorney’s Dangerous Drug Offender Unit, the DEA, and members of the Philadelphia Police Department. About 9,500 hits of LSD (with a reported "street value" of roughly $28,000), along with $10,000 in cash, were found.

Investigators believe the hallucinagetic was being sold by the defendants for more than a year before the DA’s office was able to break up the ring.

The group was said to be selling the drug for $10 to $30 per hit. It was estimated that the defendants were raking in north of $5,000 to $15,000 a week.