Narcotics raid nets dealer, drugs, cash

When Narcotics Unit Sgt. Joseph Bologna and Officer Tom Tolstoy walked into the cell phone store in the Northeast on Wednesday afternoon looking for Edward Stern, they found he was wearing his electronic monitoring bracelet just like he was supposed to.

But, police said, they also found that he had $27,000 in cash - and one pound of cocaine neatly packaged for sale in individual amounts.

Now Stern, the alleged co-leader of a drug gang called the Ugly Gang awaiting trial on federal drug charges, has traded his ankle bracelet for a jail cell.

Yesterday, police said a pair of search warrants executed in connection with Stern's arrest also uncovered a pound of methamphetamine, five handguns, a rifle and $30,000 more in cash. The drugs combined have a street value or more than $340,000, officials said.

Chief Inspector William Blackburn, commander of the Narcotics Unit, said investigators zeroed in on Stern after making undercover cocaine buys at a Nextel store on the 7300 block of Bustleton Avenue where he worked.

Nextel and the store's management knew nothing of the sideline business, police said.

Stern, of the 8700 block of Perch Lane in Pennypack Woods, had been arrested in fall 2005 after the police and FBI executed a series of search warrants during which they found six alligators in a pond in the basement of his home. Investigators also seized $1.3 million in cocaine, heroin, marijuana, prescription pills and codeine syrup as well as 16 firearms.

Stern posted $10,000 cash bail - 10 percent of his $100,000 bail - and he was later indicted by a federal jury.

"He's just been thumbing his nose at the criminal justice system," Blackburn said.

Stern was being held yesterday on state drug and weapons charges.

Capt. Chris Werner, commander of Narcotics Field Unit 2, said the FBI remains interested in Stern and the charges may be bumped up to more serious federal offenses.