The final four defendants in the dismantled heroin ring in the Quakertown area have pleaded guilty to multiple felonies in Bucks County Bucks County Common Pleas Court. Last week, brothers Sheamus McCarthy, Casey McCarthy and Thomas McCarthy – all from Richland Township – along with Kenneth Delp – 26, of South Linda Court in Richlandtown – admitted guilt for their roles in leading an illicit drug agency that flooding the region with heroin, according to information posted by the Bucks County District Attorney's Office.

            Plea agreements announced Jan. 5 will result in substantial state prison sentences for three of the defendants, according to the bucks.crimewatchpa.com website. A judge deferred Casey McCarthy's sentencing until Jan. 26.

            The organization, headed primarily by Sheamus and Casey McCarthy, delivered up to 2,800 individual bags of heroin per week from Philadelphia to Upper Bucks County, prosecutors said, where annual sales approached $1 million.

            According to a Bucks County investigating grand jury presentment released early last year, the drug organization's crimes "led to widespread addiction amongst young citizens of the Quakertown area," caused numerous overdoses and endangered many lives, all while reaping large profits. The presentment states that at least two people who were customers of the organization died of overdoses.

            Sheamus McCarthy, 28, received a negotiated sentence of 9 1/2 to 20 years in state prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to participate in a corrupt organization, possession with intent to deliver heroin, conspiracy to deliver heroin, and recklessly endangering another person, according to law enforcement officials.

            "I'm not proud of my actions," he told Judge Diane E. Gibbons before she accepted the plea and imposed the negotiated sentence. "I apologize to my family. I apologize to the community … I apologize to everyone who has followed my lead."

            According to the presentment, Sheamus McCarthy "was known around town as not only a high-level drug dealer, but someone who others described as an enforcer-type, involved in fights and acts of violence. He was considered the `mastermind of the organization.'"

            Casey McCarthy, 22, did not enter into a plea agreement, according to the post from the DA's office. It states that he appeared before Judge Wallace H. Bateman Jr. in a different courtroom and entered an open guilty plea to conspiracy to participate in a corrupt organization, delivery of heroin, conspiracy to deliver heroin, and recklessly endangering another person. Bateman deferred his sentencing until Jan. 26.

            According to court records, Casey McCarthy "frequently made trips to Philadelphia to acquire the heroin to be distributed to heroin dealers who would in turn sell the heroin to users."

            Thomas McCarthy, 26 – who pleaded guilty to delivery of heroin, conspiracy to deliver heroin and recklessly endangering another person – received a negotiated sentence of four years and nine months to 10 years in state prison.

           According to David A. Keightly Jr., a deputy district attorney who prosecuted the case, Thomas McCarthy had only a brief leadership role in his brothers' heroin ring at the outset, but that he continued to independently sell smaller amounts of heroin that he obtained in Philadelphia and Allentown.

            Thomas McCarthy – who told the judge he was a few credits short of a two-year degree in accounting, but became addicted to heroin at age 23, and had a 30 bag per day habit during the time he was dealing – admitted that he started dealing heroin to support his habit.

            I "sold my soul," he said, according to the website. "I got lost in my addiction and didn't understand the evil that the drug truly was." Thomas McCarthy also told the court he finally went to his parents for help, spent time in a drug rehab program and a recovery house, and that he had been drug-free for more than a year before his arrest.

            Delp, a married pipefitter with five young children, told Gibbons he had struggled with cocaine addiction and bipolar disorder, and that he had used his illegal proceeds to support his family.  According to Keightly, Delp took over after Sheamus McCarthy was jailed on other criminal matters in 2016 during the final months of the organization.

            "I truly feel awful about it," Delp said, referring to the impact of his crimes on his family, addicts' families and the community, according to law enforcement officials. "I wouldn't advise anyone to take the road I've taken."

            Gibbons said she would recommend that each defendant, while in prison, be educated about and exposed to the damage done by the heroin they sold, including detailed information about the number of overdoses and deaths caused by heroin across Pennsylvania.