'Quiet' New Kensington neighborhood unsettled by cocaine seizure, arrests

Holly Knapp knows there are places illicit drugs are bought and sold in New Kensington. She didn’t think her neighborhood was one of them.

Knapp has lived for 25 years on Beamer Avenue, a short distance from where police Saturday descended on a house at the corner of Seventh Street, taking two men into custody and seizing 22 pounds of cocaine.

Knapp and others described the area, near Martin Elementary School, as quiet.

“That’s the sad thing. This is considered the good part (of New Kensington),” she said. “I can’t believe that. It’s crazy, on our own street.”

In an arrest affidavit, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said investigators had been watching Marcos Francisco-Tomas and Andres Flores-Cedeno at the house in the 1800 block of Seventh Street since November.

They moved in and arrested both after seeing Francisco-Tomas get out of a tractor-trailer that stopped in front of the house and carried a duffel bag investigators believed contained cocaine, according to the affidavit. Flores-Cedeno was arrested outside the house; Francisco-Tomas ran and was caught in the Martin Elementary parking lot.

Alex Bargerstock wasn’t home when the bust went down. Police cars were all over the area when he came home, but he didn’t know why at the time.

Bargerstock lives nearby on Margaret Street, a short dead-end road off of Beamer. Although he and his neighbors know every vehicle that belongs in the area, he said nobody noticed the surveillance.

When Bargerstock found out what had been going on, “I wasn’t too happy about it,” he said. “It definitely makes you want to lock the doors at night.”

The house had been sold at a county tax sale in December 2021, according to county property records. The listed owner is a limited liability corporation; a phone number listed for it did not work.

Neighbors said they believed the new owner fixed up the house initially with the intent of flipping it but decided to rent it for a time. Neighbors criticized them for not doing enough to vet their tenants.

Knapp said she had seen Francisco-Tomas and Flores-Cedeno outside the house but had never talked with them. She had seen them cutting the grass and believed they may have worked as landscapers because they had a pickup with a trailer.

Police were at the house for several hours into the night Saturday, Knapp said.

“We were clueless, but we had a feeling it was something bad,” she said.

A DEA representative did not respond to a request for comment Thursday. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Pittsburgh said they were unable to comment or provide any additional information.

Martin Elementary houses the New Kensington-Arnold School District’s kindergarten students. District Superintendent Chris Sefcheck said Thursday he had no comment.

New Kensington police Chief Bob Deringer and the Westmoreland County District Attorney’s Office did not respond to requests for comment. It was not known whether they were involved with or aware of the DEA investigation; the DEA affidavit did not identify any other agencies involved in the investigation.

According to the affidavit, 10 kilograms of cocaine, or about 22 pounds, were found scattered and hidden throughout the house. Investigators said they also found an undetermined amount of cash in a locked safe, a money counter and drug packaging materials.

Investigators believe Flores-Cedeno and Francisco-Tomas distributed controlled substances by the kilogram, about 2.2 pounds, to several people in the Pittsburgh area.

While attending an event Thursday in downtown New Kensington, Mayor Tom Guzzo said he did not know about the operation.

Drugs are a concern officials are addressing, he said.

“Obviously, we don’t want it to happen anywhere,” Guzzo said. “I’m grateful these folks were caught and that was taken off the street.”