MAJOR DRUG OPERATIONS IN LUZERNE COUNTY IN 2008 KEEP NARCOTIC AGENTS BUSY

It was a busy year for undercover drug agents with the state Office of
Attorney General's Bureau of Narcotics Investigation and Luzerne
County Drug Task Force.

More than 70 people were busted in three separate investigations -
Operation Heavyweight, Operation Bad News and Operation Hometown - in
2008.

The larger drug sweeps, such as the three in 2008, are given the term
"Operation" to distinguish the suspected drug dealers with the
investigation, said Frank Noonan, regional director for the state
office of Attorney General.

In fact, it was Noonan who started calling drug sweeps Operations
about five years ago, a term that is used statewide today.

"When you charge 20 to 30 people, it's easier to associate the names
of those charged to the investigation; that's the reason we call the
investigations operations," Noonan said. "It started here in Luzerne
County about five years ago and is now used statewide."

According to the Attorney General's Office Web site and The Times
Leader archives, the first undercover drug investigation coined
operation was Operation Bone Crusher that netted the arrest of seven
people in November 2003 after a 19-month investigation that began
after the arrest of a high school student for a small amount of marijuana.

Bone Crusher involved a $2 million cocaine trafficking ring in Luzerne
County with ties to New York City and St. Lucia in the Caribbean.

Noonan said as active as 2008 was for drug sweeps, he anticipates 2009
to be busier.

"Heroin users are dramatically increasing," he said. "These drugs go
in cycles with its highpoint, but we've seen heroin becoming more
popular because the users can snort it instead of injecting it. It's
easier to sell a drug when you can snort it."

An October drug sweep that didn't have an operation phrase but started
with a police chief walking his dog netted more than 240 heroin
packets stamped "OBAMA 09" and five people arrested.

Kingston police and agents with the county drug task force said the
five people charged sold heroin in Kingston, Edwardsville and
Wilkes-Barre.

Noonan called the investigation "one of the larger heroin rings in the
Edwardsville and Kingston areas" that he's ever seen.

Operation Heavyweight busted two Wilkes-Barre drug trafficking rings -
Long Island Boys and Jersey City Boys - that centered in the Sherman
Hills Apartment Complex and South Wilkes-Barre, respectively.

Attorney General Tom Corbett said in October the Long Island gang was
involved in a turf war over the heroin trade in Sherman Hills,
estimating that the gang sold 3,000 to 5,000 heroin packets a week
with an estimated street value of $60,000 to $100,000 a week.

Corbett further said the Long Island gang was involved in "weekly
shootings" and the alleged torture of a 15-year-old boy.

Operation Bad News, announced in October, resulted in the arrest of
seven people suspected of peddling a large amount of marijuana in
Luzerne County since 2003.

Operation Hometown in May was the result of an eight-month
investigation that arrested 37 suspected street level cocaine and
heroin dealers in Pittston, Hughestown, Jenkins Township and
Wilkes-Barre.