by KYW's Steve Tawa and Tony Hanson
Philadelphia police and the FBI have scored a big drug bust, confiscating extremely high grade marijuana and mushrooms from a City Avenue apartment -- a cache that officials say was destined to go to wealthy Main Line end users.
Philadelphia Police Department chief inspector William Blackburn says when they arrested 24-year-old Michael Cascioli (above), he had about ten pounds of marijuana in a backpack in a hallway, and they found the rest in the bedroom of his City Avenue apartment.
All told, police seized about $1.4 million worth of pot and hallucinogenic mushrooms.
Blackburn says the pot's THC content was 15 to 20 percent, compared to typical marijuana that has a THC range of two to four percent:
"This particular brand is called 'AK-47.' "
He says that's because the potency of the drug:
"It's called a 'one-hit wonder.' Primarily, the clients of this operation were in the suburbs."
The intensive investigation lasted six weeks, and search-and-seizure warrants were executed at properties that included the 6100 block of City Avenue in Philadelphia, the 600 block of Conshohocken Road in Bala Cynwyd, and a home in Columbia, Md.
Investigators also seized more than $423,000 in cash from those locations.
Bail for Cascioli and another man arrested -- Jeremy Sarakissina -- were set at $10 million each by bail commissioner Tomothy O'Brien.
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