Law enforcement officials from Bucks County and Quakertown have dismantled a major heroin trafficking organization.

                On Wednesday afternoon, law enforcement officials – including District Attorney Matt Weintraub and Quakertown Police Chief Scott McElree – announced the arrest of several members of the McCarthy drug trafficking organization accused of distributing heroin to numerous people in the borough and throughout upper Bucks County.

                Between 2013 and 2016, Sheamus Patrick McCarthy, 27, of Park Avenue in Quakertown and Casey James McCarthy, 22, of East Cherry Road in Richlandtown, allegedly ran the illegal enterprise from a remote, wooded family compound in Richland Township, according to Larry R. King, a communications specialist with the Bucks County District Attorney's Office. At its peak, the operation did almost $1 million dollars in annual business.

                The organization distributed a large quantity of heroin to Quakertown residents that led to "widespread addiction amongst young citizens" while the "brothers reaped vast financial profits," according to the Grand Jury presentment released Wednesday by the Bucks County District Attorney's Office.

                The presentment from a Bucks County Grand Jury, unsealed late Monday afternoon, directly linked the overdoses of five people to the actions of the organization, including the death of Sean Brzyski.

                Charges against 13 members of the McCarthy drug trafficking organization were filed March 10 in the Quakertown District Court of Judge Robert Schnell, Jr., according to a state judicial website.

                Organization members face a variety of felony charges, including participating in corrupt organizations, dealing in proceeds from an unlawful activity, delivery or possession of an illegal substance with the intent to deliver, criminal conspiracy and criminal use of communication facility.  Six have also been charged with reckless endangerment, a misdemeanor.

                Charges were filed against Sheamus and Casey McCarthy, as well as their brother Thomas James McCarthy, 25, of East Cherry Road in Richland Township. Law enforcement officials identified their co-conspirators as Antoine Hakim Harris, 28, of Philadelphia; Chad Eric Knechel, 45, of S. Main Street in Richlandtown; Kenneth Delp, 26, of S. Linda Court in Richlandtown; Daniel Moyer, 25, of E. Union Street in Richlandtown; Kenneth Joseph Delp, 26, of S. Linda Court in Richlandtown; Michael Levi Wentz, 21, of Perkasie; Lauren Elizabeth Bihl, 26, no fixed address; Ryan Ernest Mokrynchuk, 24, of Red Barn Lane in Quakertown; Jonathan Benjamin King, 27, of Park Avenue in Quakertown; Melody Annette Clugh, 23, of S. Main Street in Quakertown; and Jillian Robyn Betts, 24, no fixed address.

                Nine of the suspects were arrested and arraigned Monday.

                The bail set by Schnell for the defendants range from 10 percent of $5 million to 10 percent of $15 million, the amount for Casey and Thomas McCarthy. All nine suspects were remanded to Bucks County Prison.

                According to 195-page presentment, all three brothers worked together since at least the early months of 2014 "to distribute heroin to numerous persons in upper Bucks County for personal use and/or re-sale."

                Although Thomas McCarthy sometimes sold heroin in conjunction with his brothers, and would also sometimes refer his customers to them or receive customer referrals from them, "he also conducted his own independent drug-dealing operation around upper Bucks County and in Allentown to numerous customers," according to law enforcement officials.

                Harris allegedly supplied heroin users and dealers from Bucks County with large quantities of heroin on a regular basis. Harris, nicknamed "Twan," who employed two people, demonstrated an "enormous impact on the people of Bucks County" despite not actually conducting any sales within the county, according to law enforcement officials.

                Delp and Moyer received large quantities of heroin from Casey and Sheamus McCarthy to resell for the entire duration of the organization, according to authorities.

                The organization sold heroin under several brand names, including BUENO, MIAMI, PROTOCOL, PANELA, the music symbol for an eighth note and FRESH, according to the legal document.

                Knechel, an employee of the organization for all of 2014 and midway into 2015, allegedly sold heroin in Richlandtown for Sheamus, Casey and Delp, according to law enforcement officials.

                Knechel also provided transportation to Sheamus and Casey for several trips to the city to buy large amounts of heroin, according to the document.

                Sheamus McCarthy oversaw the operations of the organization, while Casey McCarthy went every few days in his red Jeep to Philadelphia to allegedly acquire the heroin. In April or May 2014, Casey McCarthy paid between $5,300 and $6,300 for one hundred bundles.

                King told investigators that the purchases occurred on the 5300 block of W. Columbia Avenue, a residential row-home section of Philadelphia where W. Columbia meets Oxford Street and Georges Lane, and that someone named "Slim" would meet them at the address and deliver the drugs in a black plastic bag, according to the presentment.

                For these trips, Casey would arrange to have a second car follow his vehicle. He instructed that driver to commit traffic violations if a police car wound up following them in order to "distract the police from the Jeep," according to law enforcement officials.

                Quakertown Police became aware of the MIAMI brand on June 7, 2014, after the fatal overdose of Daniel Killion from an adverse reaction to drugs. Law enforcement officials said they discovered several used bags of MIAMI in his room.

                They determined that Bihl, a low-level dealer in the organization, sold the MIAMI brand heroin to Killion.

                The next day, authorities allegedly discovered similarly branded heroin bags at the scene of a non-fatal overdose in Milford Township.

                "The victim had purchased these bags directly from Sheamus McCarthy near the Spinnerstown Hotel in Milford Township," and had bought heroin directly from him more than a hundred times, according to the document.

                Six months later, while investigating the fatal overdose of Brzyski, Quakertown police determined that he had purchased three bags of heroin from Betts for $45.

                "Based on the statements of her and a witness, authorities determined that Betts was regularly selling small quantities of heroin, usually unstamped blue bags, on behalf of Thomas McCarthy consistently through 2014 and 2015, and on behalf of other dealers in 2016," according to pronouncement.

                In the second half of 2015, Sheamus McCarthy began to transfer all of the day-to-day operations of the organization to Casey McCarthy and assume more of a "hands-off" financial, managerial role, according to law enforcement officials.

                By September of 2015, business was booming for the organization, which was selling between 200 and 400 bundles of heroin per week. Casey and Sheamus McCarthy received at least $2,000 of profit during each sales cycle, law enforcement said.

                In October of 2015, during a search of Sheamus McCarthy's house at Second and Park Avenue in Quakertown, authorities allegedly located approximately $5,000 in cash in a drawer in Sheamus' bedroom "for which nobody provided a reasonable legitimate explanation," according to the legal document.

                Following multiple overdoses by people who allegedly purchased heroin from the organization, Delp sold one bundle of FRESH brand heroin to a police informant in Quakertown on Aug. 12, 2016, according to authorities.

                In September 2016, Timothy Carroll, a Bucks County detective, served a warrant at the home of Casey and Thomas McCarthy and seized Casey McCarthy's red Jeep. Inside the red Jeep, Detective Carroll allegedly found a copy of a criminal complaint recently filed against Wentz.

                In the back of the Jeep, he found a piece of a black plastic bag – similar to what numerous witnesses had claimed the heroin from Philadelphia was packaged in – that had torn off inside of a compartment, according to the document.