Montco DA: Main Line Drug Ring, Operated By Prep School Grads, Taken Down
By Brad Segall and Jan Carabeo
NORRISTOWN, Pa. (CBS) -- Prosecutors in Montgomery County, Pa. say they've taken down an intricate drug distribution network that targeted students at high schools and colleges throughout the Main Line and was being run by two graduates of a prestigious private school.
Prosecutors say the criminal enterprise was known as the "Main Line Takeover Project," and they say the ringleaders had eyes on becoming the major marijuana distributors in the area.
According to officials, 25-year-old Neil Scott and 18-year-old Timothy Brooks were running the operation and grooming others to help distribute their product at high schools and colleges.
"Scott and Brooks employed students from five local high schools and three colleges as what they called 'subdealers' to distribute cocaine, marijuana, hash oil, (and) Ecstasy," says Montgomery County DA Risa Ferman, "and they used connections in their community to target dealers who would then carry on their business."
Law enforcement started this four-month investigation in January after receiving tips from confidential informants.
Prosecutors say Scott had bulk marijuana shipped from California to his Haverford apartment, the base of his illegal drug operation.
Prosecutors say he also used his parents' home in Paoli and Brooks' home in Villanova to conduct business.
It was Brooks, authorities say, who supervised sub-dealers who sold marijuana at local high schools.
PHOTOS: Suspects In Main Line Drug Ring
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She says the subdealers were urged to meet quotas and to offer incentives to buyers to increase profits.
The schools were Harriton, Lower Merion, Radnor, and Conestoga High Schools, the Haverford School, and Gettysburg, Lafayette, and Haverford Colleges.
Scott and Brooks were graduates of the Haverford School.
In all, eleven people have been charged.
The investigation is continuing.
Prosecutors say the ring leaders are facing some serious time behind bars.