Bensalem Heroin Dealer Gets 20 Years In Prison

BENSALEM, PA — A Bensalem man will spend the next 20 years in prison for dealing heroin, at least some of it laced with fentanyl, and gun charges.

Matt "Mack" Jones, 37, was sentenced to 240 months in prison and eight years supervised release by senior U.S. District Jusge R. Barclay Surrick. Jones was convicted in October of charges of distribution of heroin and possession of firearms by a convicted felon.

In January 2018, federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents in Philadelphia, New Jersey State Police and Philadelphia Police started a joint investigation of Jones and others. They learned that Jones was a heroin dealer and that he supplied the drug to two women, who delivered it to customers in the Philadelphia area and New Jersey.

Undercover officers bought heroin from Jones and the women several times with the help of a cooperating witness at the Cherry Hill Mall, in Cherry Hill, N.J., and Philadelphia Mills (formerly Franklin Mills) in Philadelphia.

Prosecutors say lab analysis of the drugs confirmed that it was heroin mixed with fentanyl, a potentially deadly opioid. In July 2018, officers searched Jones' Bensalem home.

They found half a kilogram of heroin, cocaine, marijuana and more than $100,000 cash, as well as a Colt .38 handgun and a 12-gauge shotgun and ammunition.

"Drug trafficking is a serious federal offense which will earn those convicted of it serious time behind bars, as this sentence demonstrates," said Deputy U.S. Attorney Louis D. Lappen. "Our office is determined to investigate and convict these criminals to keep the streets of our communities safer."