A man left me a lengthy voice mail requesting an in-depth story on the number of out-of-towners coming to Luzerne County to commit crime.

Interesting story idea, I thought. Certainly do-able. It would be time consuming to review thousands of arrest and court records.

The most heinous crime committed by a non-Wyoming Valley native would have to be that committed by Henry Stubbs, convicted in nightmarish murders of a mother and her 6-year-old daughter nearly eight years ago in Wilkes-Barre. A single juror held out on imposing the death penalty for Stubbs, originally from Camden, N.J., who was here to visit a girlfriend.

Prosecutors said Virginia Beach, Va., male escorts Joseph Kerekes and Harlow Cuadra traveled here to profit in their pornographic movie company by killing a business rival in Dallas Township in January 2007.

Kerekes pleaded guilty to second degree murder, and Cuadra was convicted of first-degree murder after a nearly three-week jury trial. Both are serving life sentences.

Jimmy “Crush” Davis, of Far Rockaway, N.Y., showed up in February 2004 in a luxury sport utility vehicle to sell drugs. He ended up killing a woman inside a South Franklin Street, Wilkes-Barre, apartment and is now serving 19 to 40 years in state prison.

Wilkes-Barre police and Luzerne County detectives never ended their hunt for Marc Smith, of Brooklyn, N.Y., charged in a fatal shooting at a city caf� in January 2006. Smith was captured less than a year ago in his hometown and is facing a criminal homicide charge in county court.

Marcellus Thomas and Sinard Ballard, both from Philadelphia, are facing homicide charges in which arrest records indicate was a deadly drug related shooting in Pittston in October 2007.

Homicide is the most barbaric kind of crime on the books. A crime that happens all too frequently are illegal drug sales.

One of the biggest drug raids in recent years was the state attorney general’s Operation Bone Crusher, which was a $2 million cocaine trafficking ring in Luzerne County with ties to New York City and St. Lucia in the Caribbean.

It was busted in November 2003.

Operation Heavyweight, another AG performance, busted two Wilkes-Barre drug trafficking gangs -- Long Island Boys and Jersey City Boys -- that sold large volumes of heroin in the Sherman Hills Apartment Complex in Wilkes-Barre and in South Wilkes-Barre, respectively.

Most of the members in the two gangs relocated to the Diamond City from Long Island and Jersey City.

Our own, homegrown problems

I’m not saying we’re under siege by out-of-town criminals. We have our own problems right here at home.

One doesn’t have to look far to see the embarrassment former judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael T. Conahan painted not only on our judicial system in Luzerne County but across the state and nation. Ciavarella and Conahan were indicted last week by a federal grand jury that charged them with racketeering, fraud, money laundering, extortion, bribery and federal tax violations and that they received millions of dollars in illegal payments, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Ciavarella and Conahan, natives to the area, allegedly laundered money through their condominium at their exclusive yacht club in, you guess it, out of town in Jupiter, Palm Beach County, Fla.

About the Author

Ed Lewis covers police news for the Times Leader. Reach him at elewis@timesleader.com.

Ed Lewis covers police for The Times Leader. A graduate of Hanover Area, he earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from King’s College where he also minored in political science. He interned for Congressman Paul E. Kanjorski in Washington, D.C., while in college, and formerly was an assignment editor and managing editor before finding his niche covering the very busy police beat. His hobbies include lifting weights, kickboxing, reading, carpentry, gardening, model trains and sports, especially football.

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