9 adults, 2 teens face charges in expansive, multi-county operation
By Kathleen Brady Shea, Managing Editor, The Times
Neil K. Scott
Operatives of the “main line take over project” – as it was described in seized text messages – planned to dominate marijuana distribution in area high schools and colleges, according to a news release from Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman.
A collaborative investigation resulted in the arrest of eight individuals, an arrest warrant for another, and petitions on two juveniles on Monday, April 21, the release said. From Feb. 28 to April 9, detectives executed multiple search warrants and evidence of the drug-trafficking organization – including eight pounds of marijuana, 23 grams of cocaine, three grams of hash oil, and three loaded firearms – was seized at nine locations in Montgomery, Chester, Delaware, Northampton, Adams, and Philadelphia Counties, the release said.
Together, the defendants sold a variety of illicit drugs to students at local Main Line high schools, including Conestoga High, colleges, and fraternity houses. The investigation led to the arrests of the organization’s main drug suppliers, Neil K. Scott, 25, of Haverford, and Timothy C. Brooks, 18, of Villanova, both Haverford School graduates who were formerly affiliated with the lacrosse team, the release said.
Timothy C. Brooks
In January, the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Narcotics Enforcement Team and the Lower Merion Township Police Department initiated an investigation into a marijuana- and cocaine-trafficking organization. The probe revealed that Scott received bulk shipments of marijuana from a California supplier at his Haverford apartment, which was the base of the illegal operation, the release said.
Scott, a 2008 graduate of the Haverford School, attended Connecticut College for three semesters before he dropped out after being sanctioned by the college for marijuana use and counterfeit identification cards. He also used his parent’s home in Paoli and Brooks’ family home in Villanova to conduct drug business, the release said.
In addition to marijuana, Scott and Brooks, a 2013 graduate of the Haverford School who dropped out of the University of Richmond after one semester on a lacrosse scholarship, sold cocaine, hash oil and MDMA (ecstasy) to students at several high schools and colleges. Scott and Brooks employed students from five local high schools and three colleges as “sub-dealers” to distribute cocaine, marijuana, hash oil and ecstasy.
In addition to Scott and Brooks, authorities identified the following sub-dealers: Daniel Robert McGrath, 18, of Glenolden, a student at the Haverford School; John Cole Rosemann, 20, of Weston, Ct., a student at Lafayette College; Christian Stockton Euler, 23, of Villanova, a Haverford School graduate attending Lafayette College; Garrett M. Johnson, 18, of Jericho, N.Y., a student at Haverford College; Reid Cohen, 18, of Englewood Cliffs, N.J, who attends Haverford College; Willow Lynn On, 22, of Philadelphia; Domenic Vincent Curcio, 29, of Philadelphia; a 17-year-old student at Radnor High School; and a 17-year-old student at Lower Merion High School.
Partners in the investigation included Chester County District Attorney Thomas P. Hogan, Delaware County District Attorney John J. Whelan, Northampton County District Attorney John M. Morganelli, and Philadelphia County District Attorney R. Seth Williams, the release said.
Hogan pointed out that “drug dealers in southeastern Pennsylvania work across the region. Prosecutors and detectives have to work the same way, cooperating across the region to beat the dealers at their own game.”
Williams added that “this is everyone’s problem. As the father of three daughters, two of whom are still in middle school, it is jarring that drugs from California not only made it to our area but that high school students were being used as dealers. The days of believing ‘it can’t happen here’ are long gone, and I commend my colleague and friend Risa Ferman and her hardworking office on these arrests.”
Ferman said “these drug dealers, motivated by their own greed, sought to create a network to push poison into our educational institutions and take-over drug distribution on the Main Line.” She said while parents were sending their children to some of the finest educational institutions in the area, the “defendants sought to use the schools to create drug addicts.”
According to investigators, Scott made regular trips to the campuses of Gettysburg College in Adams County and Lafayette College in Northampton County, to deliver marijuana, MDMA, and cocaine to sub-dealers, who were encouraged with incentives to locate new customers to offset his transportation costs. Text messages recovered during the investigation revealed that Scott gave Brooks, who supervised the high school drug trade, business advice on how to expand marijuana sales with quotas – and higher profits when they were met.
Ferman said the combination of “guns and drugs” posed an even greater threat. “Far too often we see drug trafficking intertwined with violent crime,” she said. “The seizure of multiple dangerous firearms, along with the variety of drugs being pushed to our children by this organization, make it clear to us that this operation posed a significant danger to our community…”
The defendants in custody were arraigned on charges that include corrupt organization; manufacture, delivery, and/or possession with the intent to deliver a controlled substance; and criminal conspiracy, the release said.
