By Troy Graham
The Philadelphia Inquirer
PHILADELPHIA — Three armed men hijacked a cargo van and kidnapped the driver as he was delivering thousands of dollars’ worth of pharmaceutical narcotics to an Upper Darby drugstore last week.
The bandits left the van and the bound driver on Essington Avenue and, wearing orange safety vests, unloaded the drugs into a getaway car.
A few hours later, Philadelphia narcotics officers raided a house in Southwest, found a stash of pills, and arrested five men.
Yesterday, police in Upper Darby charged one of those five men with Friday’s hijacking and robbery.
Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood said he believed the arrests broke up a ring that was responsible for a series of armed robberies at suburban drugstores.
Some of the pharmaceuticals found at the Southwest home, in the 7000 block of Buist Avenue, matched the lot numbers of narcotics taken in the Upper Darby heist, as well as in a robbery about three weeks earlier in Clifton Heights, Chitwood said.
Upper Darby investigators were trying to determine whether any other of the five people arrested in Philadelphia were suspects in the hijacking at the Upper Darby Pharmacy, Chitwood said.
Surveillance video at the drugstore showed the driver, a contract employee for AEXGroup, arriving in an unmarked cargo van and unloading the drug bins around 10:45 a.m. Friday.
A man then came up behind the driver and forced him back into the van, where he was tied up. Meanwhile, two more men reloaded the drugs into the van.
The men escaped with $50,000 to $60,000 in potent narcotics, Chitwood said. The driver was not harmed.
Philadelphia narcotics officers acting on a tip raided the Buist Avenue house and recovered about $33,000 worth of pills, including Xanax, Percocet, and Vicodin, as well as codeine syrup.
Upper Darby and Philadelphia detectives searched the house a second time Tuesday, recovering orange safety vests and a red shirt with the word Respect written on the back in large script. One of the men on the surveillance video during the Upper Darby robbery was wearing a similar shirt.
No weapons were found in the house.
The suspects are Antonio Martin, 30, of the 8000 block of Lindbergh Boulevard; Curtis Brown, 29, of the 2400 block of South Millick Street; Jamar Johnson, 25, of the 5700 block of Windsor Avenue; Salim Shabazz, 39, of the 5600 block of Whitby Avenue; and John Curley, 40, of the 4600 block of Osage Avenue.
Philadelphia police charged all five with possession with intent to deliver, conspiracy, and other counts. Upper Darby police charged Shabazz in the hijacking and robbery.
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