Main Line Man Coordinated With Mexican Cartel In Major Cocaine-Dealing Operation: Feds

PHILADELPHIA — A Main Line man co-led a Philadelphia drug-trafficking organization that received hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from a Mexican drug cartel, according to a federal indictment filed against Wayne resident Edward Basley and nine others.

Basley and Philadelphia resident Gregory Jones coordinated with the cartel to transport cocaine from Mexico, according to U.S. Attorney David Metcalf. Their group, which federal authorities called the Jones-Basley Drug Trafficking Organization (DTO), pushed $5-10 million worth of drugs onto the city's streets each month, Metcalf said.

"Literal truckloads of cocaine have been seized as a result of this case and kept from flooding our city," Metcalf said Wednesday.

Jones (aka "Smallz), Basley (aka "Beeb") and eight alleged members and associates of the Jones-Basley DTO were charged in a recently unsealed federal indictment.

The FBI arrested five of them Tuesday in coordinated operations, officials said. The rest were already in state or federal custody.

Basley and Jones have been tied to bulk cocaine trafficking in the Philly area since the early 2000s, federal prosecutors claim.

In 2008, Basley was sentenced to 25 years in prison for cocaine distribution, according to court documents. He was released in 2019 on a reduced sentence as part of the First Step Act — a bipartisan criminal-justice bill passed in President Donald Trump's first term.

Jones was sentenced to 18 years behind bars in 2012. President Joe Biden commuted his sentence in 2022, and he was released a year later.

Both men were undergoing supervised released when they were once again charged with cocaine-trafficking offenses in June.

Jones, 48, and Basley, 47, were charged with conspiracy to distribute 5 kilograms or more of cocaine and possession with intent to distribute at least 5 kilograms of cocaine.

Jones was also charged with intent to distribute that quantity within 1,000 feet of an elementary school, while Basley is accused of possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime.

Also charged with conspiracy to distribute at least 5 kilograms of cocaine are Philadelphia residents Jabari Savage, Renard Brown, Jermaine Singleton, Farid Haddad and David McField; Shawn Bell, of Cheltenham; Orenthial Bailey, of Temple, Texas; and Eduard Amador, 38, of Manassas, Virginia.

The investigation is ongoing.

Every defendant facing charges is presumed innocent unless and until they're convicted in court.