'Untouchable' Chester County Drug Kingpin Sentenced

The leader of a drug trafficking organization which the Chester County District Attorney's Office said was known as "untouchable" has been sentenced. 

Salvador Lemus, 67, received 332 to 664 months in prison, the equivalent of between about 27.5 and 55 years, according to court documents. 

Lemus was arrested in 2014 as part of a massive drug ring bust which included 48 arrests, the DA's office said. 

Lemus' organization had direct ties to a major Mexican drug cartel, officials said. 

Over the course of 20 years, Lemus' group brought in and distributed more than 6,000 kilograms of cocaine in the United States, according to authorities. They sold the cocaine for a total of around $60 million during that time. 

"Not only was a long-standing andwell-entrenched cocaine trafficking organization dismantled locally, but theinvestigation disrupted a network that operated in four other states and reached intoa Mexican drug cartel," Jeremiah Daley, Executive Director of the Philadelphia-Camden High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, said after the arrests in 2014. 

The Chester County DA's office noted that Lemus had a reputation in the drug world as "untouchable."

Authorities were able to gather the evidence to prosecute Lemus based on wiretapping, the DA's office said.

The law enforcement operation became known as Operation Telaraña (translated from Spanish to English as "Operation Spiderweb").

Lemus had previously pleaded guilty to charges of drug distribution and conspiracy, court documents show.