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Police find alligator guarding house during drug raid in Pennsylvania

Chester County officials say the young American alligator was three feet long.
Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto
American alligator in the Everglades National Park. Close-up of all the body and the big mouth and teeth.

Chester County police are used to seeing pit bulls or snakes in a house during a drug raid, but an alligator was a first for them.

The South Coatesville Police Department and the Chester County HIDTA team were executing a warrant at 111 Gibbons Avenue, South Coatesville in Pennsylvania on Feb. 8th, and were not disappointed with their find.

On top of recovering heroin, crack cocaine, fentanyl and $5,000, they also found a three-foot alligator hanging out in the kitchen of the house, according to a press release issued by the Chester County District Attorney’s Office.

Authorities who found the American alligator nicknamed it “El Chompo,” after the Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, local station WGAL reported.

The three suspects were charged and sent to Chester County prison, while the alligator was sent to the Brandywine Zoo.

“Drug dealers will do just about anything to project an image of danger in order to protect their drugs and cash,” said Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan in a statement.

The zoo plans to keep the alligator as an educational animal throughout the summer and then send it to St. Augustine Alligator Farm and Zoological Park in Florida.

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