Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele, Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub, United States Postal Inspection Services’ Philadelphia Division Inspector-In-Charge Daniel Brubaker, FBI Bucks and Montgomery Safe Streets Task Force, and other federal, state and local law enforcement officials announced the dismantling of a drug trafficking organization known as “The Big Five”.
Two of the five leaders of this corrupt group, Brian J. Holt, 42 and Lorraine Y. Zeno, 36, are from Ambler ( the other three are from California). The three California members used the U.S. Postal Service to send multiple packages of crystal methamphetamine and marijuana to Holt and Zeno who received and trafficked the more than 350 pounds of illegal drugs across Montgomery County, Bucks County and Philadelphia. Holt and Zeno would then send the illegal proceeds to the other members of their organization in California. Ultimately, court-ordered wiretaps on Holt and Zeno’s cell phones, provided authorities with the identities of the sources of supply in California, as well as the identities of the corrupt organization’s customers.
Because the U.S. Postal Inspection Service identified the suspicious Express Mail parcel shipped from California to Montgomery County, a multi-agency investigation ensued, beginning with a federal search and seizure warrant that initially found approximately one pound of crystal methamphetamine, and turned this into a major cross-country investigation, culminating in the arrests of “The Big Five”. Daniel Brubaker, the U.S. Postal Inspection Services’ Inspector-In Charge added:
For over 200 years, the Postal Inspection Service has protected America’s employees, facilities and customers. This case exemplifies our ongoing commitment to eliminating from the mail stream the illegal narcotics that poison our youth and devastate our community. Our objective was to identify this drug trafficking organization, both here and at its source in California, and completely dismantle it, we accomplished our objective. Our collective success today is indicative of the collaborative relationship between all levels of law enforcement in the Delaware Valley and should be celebrated.
The investigation involved the Upper Dublin Police Department as well as:
- Montgomery County Detective Bureau Narcotics Enforcement Team
- United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS)
- FBI Bucks and Montgomery Safe Streets Task Force
- Bucks County District Attorney’s Office Detectives Drug Strike Task Force
- Drug Enforcement Administration (Philadelphia Division)
- Philadelphia-Camden High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA)
- Philadelphia Police Narcotics Unit—IDIS
- New Jersey State Police
- Little Egg Harbor Township Police Department
- Pennsylvania State Police Eastern Interdiction Unit
- Pennsylvania State Police Criminal Intelligence Center (PACIC)
- Middle Atlantic-Great Lakes Organized Crime Law Enforcement Network (MAGLOCLEN).
Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele praised the joint efforts of all of the above agencies and their involvement in the take-down of this drug trafficking network. The entire investigation, all of the law enforcement agencies and teams united in an effort to eradicate the trafficking of deadly drugs, and hold corrupt organizations like “The Big Five” accountable.