Heroin, Gun Seized By Police In Wilkes-Barre

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Luzerne County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

WILKES-BARRE, PA — City police Anti-Crime Unit and state police Vice and Narcotics seized about 200 heroin packets, a loaded handgun with an altered serial number and a loaded rifle when they arrested three people from Philadelphia on drug trafficking offenses on Thursday.

Authorities said Marissa A. Ramos, 23, Jorge Esay Mojica, 23, and Bryan Mojica, 19, in a buy-bust operation on Scott Street.

A 9mm handgun and a semi-automatic rifle were found during the arrest. The rifle was reported stolen to the state police at Shickshinny.

Read more: http://timesleader.com/news/local-news/1336598/Heroin-gun-seized-by-police

Pennsylvania Officials Warn About Potentially Fatal Heroinlike Drug

State officials have issued a warning about a heroin like drug that has caused 50 deaths in Pennsylvania already this year, including four in Berks County.

Berks District Attorney John T. Adams confirmed Thursday that toxicology reports have shown that four overdose deaths reported earlier this month all involved the drug fentanyl.

The state Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs said Thursday that fentanyl and its derivative, acetyl fentanyl, has been blamed for at least 50 deaths in 15 counties. Five nonfatal overdoses also have been reported.

The state also is awaiting toxicology reports from overdose deaths in several other counties.

Read more:  http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=488448

20 Busted In Drug Ring Allegedly Run From Wayne County Golf Course

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Wayne County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Editor’s note:  If you would like to see if their face and names, click on the link below to read the rest of the article.

A golf course in Wayne County served as the hub of a trafficking ring that moved more than $1.4 million worth of cocaine from New York City into the hands of area residents, according to the state attorney general’s office.

State narcotics agents on Friday charged 20 people from Lackawanna, Susquehanna and Wayne counties, including the owner of Red Maples Golf Course, Angelo Pozza, 76, with a host of cocaine-related drug counts.

Over the course of the 2½-year investigation that was eventually nicknamed Operation Penalty Stroke, narcotics agents said they were able to trace the flow of cocaine from the Bronx, N.Y., to Mr. Pozza, who sold the narcotic out of his home on the 136 acre grounds of the nine-hole golf course.

“It’s unique because it’s a golf course, but it’s the same sort of front,” said the state’s prosecutor on the case, Deputy Attorney General Timothy Doherty.

Read more:   http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/20-busted-in-drug-ring-allegedly-run-from-wayne-county-golf-course-1.1448530