Member of Large-Scale Drug Trafficking Organization Sentenced to 18 Years in Prison for Distributing PCP and Other Narcotics

PHILADELPHIA - United States Attorney David Metcalf announced that Phillip Gillard, 48, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was sentenced today to 18 years in prison, 10 years' supervised release, and $2,400 in fines and assessments by United States District Judge John M. Gallagher for drug trafficking and firearms offenses.

In July 2023, a grand jury in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania returned a 54-count superseding indictment charging Gillard and eight co-defendants with their participation in a large-scale drug trafficking organization ("DTO") operating in the Port Richmond section of Philadelphia, in the immediate vicinity of the Memphis Street Academy, a charter school located at 2950 Memphis Street.

The defendant was convicted at trial of federal drug trafficking and firearm offenses in February 2024.

The charges arose from the FBI's two-year investigation into the Gillard drug trafficking organization, which supplied other drug traffickers with wholesale quantities of methamphetamine, phencyclidine ("PCP"), fentanyl, and other narcotics.

Throughout the course of the investigation, law enforcement agents conducted surveillance and undercover sting operations, during which drugs were purchased from the defendants. Gillard and his co-defendants maintained three separate properties in connection with their drug trafficking organization, all of them less than 1,000 feet away from the Memphis Street Academy.

In total, the FBI confiscated over 20 pounds of pure methamphetamine, three gallons of PCP, one and a half kilograms of cocaine, 900 grams of crack cocaine, 400 grams of fentanyl, and 11 firearms.

Co-defendants Diane Gillard, Sharif Jackson, Amin Whitehead, Cesar Maldonado, Terrence Maxwell, Raphael Sanchez, Melvin Dreher, and Arron Preno pleaded guilty to their roles in the Gillard DTO.

Diane Gillard was sentenced to 16 years in prison and 10 years of supervised release, Jackson to 15 years in prison and 10 years of supervised release, Whitehead to 11½ years in prison and 10 years of supervised release, Maldonado to eight years in prison and eight years of supervised release, Maxwell to more than seven and a half years in prison and five years of supervised release, Sanchez to seven and a half years in prison and three years of supervised release, Dreher to five years in prison and three years of supervised release, and Preno to six months in prison and two years of supervised release.

This case was investigated by the FBI, Philadelphia Police Department, and Homeland Security Investigations, with extraordinary cooperation from the Memphis Street Academy, and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Everett Witherell and Robert Schopf.