Police: Three-town trafficking ring shut down

KINGSTON – Authorities said they found 240 packets of heroin stamped “OBAMA 09” that also included a facial imprint of the presidential candidate inside a Wilkes-Barre home on Wednesday.

The raid at the Hazle Avenue home was part of shutting down a heroin distribution ring that operated in the city, Edwardsville and Kingston, and ended in the arrest of five people, authorities said.

“It’s one of the larger heroin rings in the Edwardsville and Kingston areas that I’ve ever seen,” said Frank Noonan, regional director for the state Office of Attorney General, Bureau of Narcotics Investigation and Drug Control.

Noonan said the investigation that utilized informants and undercover drug agents with the Luzerne County Drug Task Force began two months ago.

Kingston Police Chief Keith Keiper said he was walking his dog on Ross Street in early August when residents stopped him to complain about suspicious activity at a certain apartment.

“I pushed it on the (Kingston Vice) unit and here we are today,” Keiper said.

Noonan said those arrested – Christopher Allen, 25, Jennifer Catanzariti, 24, Derek Reich, 20, Jessica Lynn Deshazo, 31, and Sirelle Buscemi, 21 – used an apartment at 9 Ross St. to sell heroin, but eventually moved their illegal heroin ring to 61 Oakwood Lane in Wilkes-Barre.

Police said Reich also used the residence at 302 Hazle Ave., Wilkes-Barre, where the heroin packets stamped “OBAMA 09” were found in the basement, Noonan said.

Authorities had warrants for some of the suspects hiding out in the two-story Oakwood Lane home, said Wilkes-Barre police Det. Mark Malloy on Wednesday night. Neighbors watching from a porch nearby said police arrived at the Wilkes-Barre home around 7 p.m. and later reported witnessing three people that were taken out in handcuffs. A man who owns property on the street said he remembered the same home was raided for drugs a year ago.

According to a June 4, 2007, brief published in The Times Leader, two New York men were arrested on drug charges after authorities searched 61 Oakwood Lane. Police recovered cash and heroin packaged for sale.

Kingston police declined to comment about the drug investigation on Wednesday night.

Noonan said heroin suppliers and dealers often use their own stamp to identify their product.

“Once you have a heroin customer, you have a daily customer,” Noonan said, adding that heroin is more addictive than other illegal substances.

Noonan said there is an increase of heroin trafficking in the Wyoming Valley due to demand.

Those arrested were arraigned before District Judge Paul J. Roberts in Kingston on Thursday on charges of corrupt organizations, criminal conspiracy to deliver a controlled substance, criminal use of communication facility and two counts of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance.

Allen, Reich and Buscemi were jailed at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility for lack of $150,000 bail each, and Deshazo and Catanzariti were jailed for lack of $100,000 bail each.

If convicted, they face a maximum sentence of 48 years in state prison, state Deputy Attorney General Tim Doherty said.

Noonan said the heroin ring moved to Wilkes-Barre about three weeks ago when Catanzariti leased the Oakwood Lane residence. She was given four packets of heroin a day by Allen that allowed him to use her residence to sell heroin, Noonan said.

Allen told authorities, according to arrest records, that he sold 40 bricks of heroin in the last two months. Noonan said a packet of heroin in the area sells for $20, and that there are 50 packets of heroin in one brick.

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Authorities say five were arrested in the major heroin ring that operated in Wilkes-Barre, Edwardsville and Kingston.

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