Philly DA charges pair who, allegedly, used composition books to hide drug sales

Two men have been charged after, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said, they were allegedly found to be using composition notebooks to sell illegal drugs at corner stores in the Wynnefield section on West Philadelphia.

According to Krasner, Noah Simmons, 26, and Shafeeq Coleman, 32, have been charged with a number of offenses including drug possession with an intent to distribute, weapon possession and related crimes after they were alleged to have been running an illegal drug sales operation out of “Alex Grocery” and in front of “Smiley’s Lucky Star” along the 1900 block of North 54th Street.

An investigation that led to these charges, he said, was started as his office recently began targeted enforcement after heading concerns about illegal drug sales occurring at smoke shops along business corridors all across the city.

“This is a view into a problem that is going on throughout the city,” said Krasner.

From Jan. 9 through 31, he said, police officers watching the commercial corridor along North 54th Street, allegedly, observed Coleman and Simmons engaged in narcotics sales and obtained search and seizure warrants that led to the arrests.

In these arrests, he said, officers confiscated seven firearms — including a handgun equipped with a “switch” that made it a rapid-fire fully automatic weapon — along with ammunition and narcotics, including marijuana bundled and packaged inside composition notebooks.

“You know, the kind you do your homework on? Well, they weren’t selling books for homework. They were selling books for something else,” Krasner said.

In a statement, Philadelphia City Council Majority Leader Katherine Gilmore Richardson (D-At Large) said that after uncovering this kind of drug sales operation along a commercial corridor, more needs to be done to prevent similar crimes from happening across the city.

“Thank you to District Attorney Krasner and our other City agencies for their efforts to crack down on nuisance businesses across Philadelphia, including today’s action in Wynnefield,” said the councilwoman. “I am proud of the work we have done so far to hold bad actors accountable and give our law enforcement agencies and the public the tools they need to take meaningful action against these harmful, destructive businesses, but we are far from finished. Our residents deserve safe, thriving neighborhoods – and we will not stop until that standard is met.”

During the day, Krasner noted that, according to Philadelphia Police Department data, so far in 2026, there have been 11 homicides. That’s nearly half the amount of killings that the city saw at the same point last year.

And, he said, it represents the lowest the city has seen at this point in the year in the last two decades.