Former Los Angeles Woman Pleads Guilty to Possessing 24 Kilograms of Cocaine for Distribution

PHILADELPHIA – United States Attorney David Metcalf announced that Constance Arrington, 35, formerly of Los Angeles, California, entered a plea of guilty before United States District Court Judge Michael M. Baylson on Monday to one count of possessing with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine.

Arrington was charged by indictment in March of last year. As previously presented at court hearings in this matter, the defendant was identified by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Police Department as part of an international and interstate cocaine trafficking organization. DEA Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Police Department alerted the DEA’s Philadelphia Field Division that Arrington made multiple short round-trip visits from Los Angeles and Philadelphia, and from Los Angeles to other U.S. cities, departing from L.A. and returning the same day, or the next day, on cross-country flights.

On March 15, 2024, DEA Philadelphia was notified that Arrington would be flying from Los Angeles to Philadelphia and returning to Los Angeles that same day. During joint DEA Philadelphia and Philadelphia Police Department surveillance that day, law enforcement observed Arrington land in Philadelphia with no checked luggage, rent a car, and depart for an office complex in New Jersey. On the way to the office complex, Arrington attempted to evade surveillance by entering a New Jersey grocery store, then quickly leaving.

After Arrington arrived at the office complex, she entered and returned with three large boxes, which she loaded into the back of her rental car. Arrington then drove back into Philadelphia via the Ben Franklin Bridge. After Arrington entered Philadelphia, law enforcement stopped and searched her vehicle, recovering 24 individually wrapped kilograms of cocaine inside the three boxes she had placed into her rental car.

The defendant is scheduled to be sentenced on July 29. She faces a mandatory minimum sentence of ten years’ imprisonment and a maximum possible sentence of life in prison.

The case was investigated by DEA Philadelphia, as part of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) program, with assistance from DEA Los Angeles, the Philadelphia Police Department, and the Los Angeles Police Department. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Timothy Lanni.