Five Years In Prison For Delaware County Drug Smuggler
By Ian Bush
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) --- A Delaware County man will spend the next five years in prison for running a drug smuggling operation that made millions from moving marijuana across the Philadelphia area.
Homeland Security assistant special agent in charge Brian Michael says a large amount of marijuana was found on Ronald Belciano's 190-acre property in Northern California.
"We seized hundreds of pounds of high-grade marijuana that they had buried under the ground using a commercial backhoe."
And then in Pennsylvania at Belciano's home in Villanova, "We seized another $2.5 million in cash," Michael says.
All told, Homeland Security Investigation Philadelphia seized more than $5 million in cash and property, "As well as artwork by Salvador Dali and others," says Michael.
The 42-year-old Belciano, now of Newtown Square, pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges involving laundering money and trafficking pot over four years -- until the feds, with the help of the Pennsylvania State Police, the state Attorney General's office, Philadelphia's DA and city police, ended things in 2011.
"We took down the pipeline, basically," Michael says, "from California to the Main Line here in Philadelphia."
Another defendant in the case, Stephen Fanfera of Douglassville, faces sentencing on January 22nd.
