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SCRANTON — U.S. Attorney Gerard M. Karam in a news release stated four men from Luzerne County were indicted by a federal grand jury on drug trafficking and firearm offenses last week.
Jamie Smicherko, 27, of Avoca; Patrick Russin, 54, of Shavertown; Ryan Medar, 36, of Jenkins Township; and Carlos Laurel, 45, of White Haven, were indicted by a federal grand jury on April 9.
According to the news release, the indictment alleges from October to April, Smicherko, Russin and Medar conspired to distribute more than 500 grams of methamphetamine within Luzerne County. The indictment further alleges Smicherko, Russin, Medar and Laurel conspired to distribute cocaine.
Medar and Smicherko trafficking firearms and possessed firearms while being involved in drug trafficking, the news release says.
Russin was a witness and testified against Hugo Marcus Selenski in separate double homicide trials, 2006 and 2015, respectively, held in Luzerne County court.
Russin pled guilty to two counts of third degree murder in the shotgun killings of two men at a Kingston Township residence where Selenski lived in May 2003, and was sentenced to 10-to-20 years in state prison. A jury acquitted Selenski on one count of criminal homicide and a hung jury was declared on a second count of criminal homicide following a trial in 2006 when Russin testified about the shotgun slayings.
Russin again testified against Selenski during a January/February trial in 2015, when a jury convicted Selenski in the flex-tie strangulation deaths of Michael Jason Kerkowski and Tammy Lynn Fassett, whose bodies were found in a shallow grave at the Kingston Township property.
The federal case that resulted in indictments last week against the four men were investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosive and police in Plains Township, Wilkes-Barre City, Kingston and Pittston City Special Investigations Unit’s Narcotics and K9 divisions, district attorney offices in Lackawanna and Luzerne counties, and the Luzerne County Drug Task Force.
Assistant U.S. Attorney James M. Buchanan is prosecuting.