Zuriel Love, 27, of Philadelphia.
A Philadelphia man is headed to state prison after pleading guilty to his role in a scheme that used UPS to ship quantities of methamphetamine from Arizona to Lansdale Borough.
Zuriel Love, 27, recently entered a guilty plea to one felony count of possession with intent to distribute, stemming from a multi-month investigation by the Montgomery County Detective Bureau, the Drug Enforcement Agency and a special detective from Lansdale Borough attached to the district attorney’s office’s Local Drug Task Force.
An additional count of possession with intent to distribute, along with misdemeanor counts of possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia, were dropped in exchange for Love’s guilty plea, court records show.
As part of the plea agreement with prosecutors, Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Risa Ferman sentenced Love to 7½ to 16 years in state prison. Assistant District Attorney Lindsay Mills sought a lengthy prison sentence as part of the agreement, according to a report by Carl Hessler at the Pottstown Mercury.
“He was a significant source of methamphetamine in this area,” Mills said, via Hessler’s report. “That’s a very significant sentence. Obviously, methamphetamine is a very dangerous drug. It’s a sentence that I think reflects the serious nature of this offense and it reflects the considerable amount of weight that he was responsible for.”
Love will receive credit for 304 days of time served while awaiting the conclusion of his case, court records show.
Investigators initially received a call from UPS on Aug. 26, 2021, regarding a 13-pound package that was being shipped to a home along the 800 block of Cherry Street in Lansdale Borough. Surveillance of the home showed the package being delivered at 2:28 p.m., and an unidentified male came outside and moved the package into the home, the report states.
The male was seen later that evening entering an Uber with the package, and investigators followed the vehicle to Philadelphia, where the male gave the package to Love, according to the complaint. Love was also seen receiving a “sister” package from an undisclosed location that same evening, police said.
Investigators said they believed the packages contained multiple pounds of methamphetamine. It was later determined through surveillance and tracking that Love had traveled to Arizona on Aug. 25, 2021, shipped two packages to the area, then took a return flight to Philadelphia to retrieve the packages, according to the complaint.
On Oct. 22, 2021, investigators were again contacted by UPS regarding a 15-pound package that Love had sent from Arizona the day before, the report states. The package was delivered to the same home on Cherry Street in Lansdale Borough, and Love arrived at the home at 3:50 p.m. to retrieve the package, the report states.
Investigators who were surveilling the home detained both Love and the unidentified man at that time, the report states. A search warrant was executed on Love’s vehicle — which contained the package — uncovering multiple pounds of methamphetamine inside of the package, police said.
Like the August incident, tracking showed that Love had taken a flight to Arizona, shipped the package to Lansdale via UPS and returned the following day, according to the criminal complaint.
Love previously spent time in federal prison after being one of 11 individuals indicted in a multi-county heroin and cocaine network dubbed the “Tat Gang.” He also had four prior juvenile arrests in Montgomery County, and allegedly devised a scheme to smuggle drugs into Clinton County jail while being held on bail.
See also:
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Hilltown Man Pleads No Contest to Sexually Abusing 14-Year-Old Girl
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