A good playground should feature many things: Swings, slides, maybe a merry-go round and, most importantly, a sense of security that it’s a place where kids can be kids without the dangers of the outside world intruding on them and their parents.
Sadly, it sounds like that might not have been the case at the Village Street playground in Moxham until recently. Authorities say that a mid- to high-level drug dealer was selling large quantities of marijuana out of his rented home near the playground.
Investigators seized marijuana, cash and drug paraphernalia and arrested Trent Jamin Gibson.
“The reason why this case is so important is the location of the house where these controlled buys were taking place,” said Kevin Price, supervisor for the Cambria County Drug Task Force.
“It was directly across the street from the Village Street playground.”
Knowing that an alleged drug dealer is living just a few feet from where children play on a regular basis is frightening enough. What is even scarier is the thought that drug deals might have gone down in such close proximity to innocent youngsters.
According to Price, Gibson wasn’t just selling a baggie of pot here or there.
“We’re not talking ounces,” Price said. “He was dealing pounds of marijuana weekly.”
A pound of marijuana has a street value of between $1,500 and $2,500, meaning that Gibson’s alleged operations would have brought in thousands of dollars per week. With that kind of money at stake, deals can go bad quickly and end in violence, which can injure innocent bystanders.
Thankfully, that didn’t happen in Moxham.
This isn’t Gibson’s first run-in with the law.
Gibson, who has a history of drug arrests, pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter, aggravated assault and child endangerment on Jan. 4, 2005, in the death of his son, Keilynn Lewis, nearly three years earlier.
Gibson was sentenced to 30 to 60 months in the Cambria County Prison in that case.
If the current charges against Gibson are proved to be true, we hope that the circumstances of his case are taken into consideration and that he’s put away for a long time.
We’re sure parents in Moxham would breathe a lot easier.
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