Skip to content
News
Link copied to clipboard

Police: $2M in cocaine found at Roxborough murder scene; victim linked to drug ‘kingpin’

Police identified the victim as Eric Danyel Miller, who had previously pleaded guilty to federal drug charges and third-degree murder, according to court records.

File photo of crime scene tape in Philadelphia
File photo of crime scene tape in PhiladelphiaRead moreChris Palmer / Staff

Police investigating the fatal shooting of a 46-year-old man inside his Roxborough apartment this weekend found nearly $2 million worth of cocaine left behind at the crime scene, and officials said Monday the killers likely stole “a substantial amount of narcotics” before fleeing.

Homicide Capt. Jason Smith on Monday also identified the victim as Eric Danyel Miller, who court records say was on federal probation after he pleaded guilty in 2009 to helping an alleged kingpin distribute more than 500 kilograms of cocaine in and around Chester and Philadelphia.

Last weekend was a violent one in the city. According to police, 12 people were shot and two were killed on Saturday and Sunday, including a double shooting in Mayfair and a triple shooting in West Philadelphia.

Miller was fatally shot Saturday night inside his apartment on the 7900 block of Henry Avenue, and was found with a gunshot wound to the chest about 7:45 p.m., according to police. Medics took him to Einstein Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead about 45 minutes later, police said.

Smith said Monday that police recovered 19 kilograms of cocaine from the apartment. Some was “bricked up” into packages and recovered outside the apartment, Smith said, and some was inside, along with a .40-caliber handgun and two machines used to form the drug into bricks.

Smith said investigators believe that two men were involved in the homicide, and that they left with an unknown quantity of drugs. He said police had recovered video of “what we believe to be a suspect’s vehicle leaving” the building, but offered no identifying details about potential suspects.

“It looks like it was a straight-up robbery,” Smith said.

In addition to the cocaine found at Miller’s apartment, Smith said, police found about 72 grams of crack, 6.2 grams of heroin, and 1,240 grams of “an unknown white powder.”

In 2008, federal prosecutors charged Miller with participating in a drug organization led by Alfonso Caldwell, whom federal authorities described as “a major local kingpin.”

Miller pleaded guilty in 2009 and ultimately received a prison sentence of 122 months, according to court records. He was released in January 2017, but was on probation through at least 2021.

Before his federal indictment, Miller served time for several crimes. In 1991, court records show, he pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and was sentenced to eight to 16 years in prison. The details of that case were not immediately clear.