DA: Felon Sold Drugs, Gun in Bensalem Sentenced to State Prison

A Philadelphia felon was sentenced on Tuesday, August 27, 2024, to serve up to a dozen years in state  prison on narcotics distribution and gun possession charges the Bucks County District Attorney’s office announced.

Ishmael Colon, 35 pleaded guilty in April to five counts of persons not to possess a firearm and one count each of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance, and possession of drug paraphernalia.

He appeared before Common Pleas Judge Wallace H. Bateman Jr. on Tuesday and was sentenced to six to 12 years in prison, followed by nine to 12 months of probation, Manuel Gamiz said.

Colon was taken into custody without incident in June 2023 after he sold a 9-mm handgun and cocaine to a subject known to police, prosecutors said.

Police recovered the handgun, two grams of cocaine and $1,600 on Colon. Ishmael Colon is prohibited to be in possession of a firearm by law because of previous felony convictions.

During a subsequent search of his home in Philadelphia, police recovered five additional handguns, one of them an AR style rifle, Gamiz said.

This case was investigated by the Bensalem Township Police Department, Bucks County Detectives and the Philadelphia Police Department FBI Task Force and was prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Thomas C. Gannon.