Delaware County Trio Charged with Drug Conspiracy,and Murdered Drug Rival

A six-count second superseding indictment was unsealed today, charging three people with conspiring to distribute oxycodone in the Philadelphia area, and charging two of those defendants with committing murder with firearms during the course of that drug conspiracy. Mitesh Patel 36, Anthony Vetri, 31, and Michael Vandergrift, 29, all of Delaware County, were charged in the second superseding indictment^[1] with one count of conspiracy to distribute oxycodone from 2008 until June 4, 2013. The indictment alleges that defendant Patel, a pharmacist, diverted oxycodone from pharmacies he owned in Delaware County and Philadelphia, to co-defendants Vetri and Vandergrift and others, including the pharmacies’ co-owner, Gbolahan Olabode. Defendants Vetri and Vandergrift are charged with murdering Olabode on January 4, 2012, outside his Lansdowne home, in order to eliminate Olabode as a drug rival, and to increase their illegal supplies of oxycodone from Patel. They are charged with committing this murder with Michael Mangold, who was charged separately. Patel is also charged with one count of money laundering conspiracy, and three counts of tax evasion. The government is also seeking forfeiture of more than $2.7 million in drug proceeds, and more than $1 million in laundered drug money. The unsealing of the indictment was announced by cting United States Attorney Louis D. Lappen.

If convicted, the defendants face lengthy prison sentences.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Division, the Philadelphia Police Department, the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, the Lansdowne Police Department, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Jonathan B. Ortiz and David. E. Troyer.