The state Attorney General\u2019s office on Monday announced the arrest of an Emmaus man who allegedly ran a drug ring that distributed fentanyl and other illegal substances to buyers in multiple Pennsylvania counties.<\/p>\n
Authorities say 40-year-old Joaquin \u201cKino\u201d Gonzalez utilized suppliers in Mexico to move fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine throughout the region. The investigation began in 2024 and involved searches at numerous locations and seizures of large quantities of narcotics, according to Attorney General Dave Sunday.<\/p>\n
Investigators determined Gonzalez had a connection in Southern California, where a Mexican trafficking organization supplied him with drugs for distribution in Pennsylvania, Sunday said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a high-level, cross-country operation that polluted neighborhoods across the eastern part of the Commonwealth with deadly poisons,\u201d Sunday said in a news release. \u201cClosing down drug-trafficking pipelines remains a top priority for my office, as these traffickers value dollars over human lives, and we have seen, time and time again, the deadly violence attached to drug trafficking groups.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2024, investigators observed Gonzalez deliver six pounds of methamphetamine to another defendant. Investigators discovered approximately four pounds of methamphetamine, seven pounds of marijuana, and $2,500 in cash during a traffic stop involving another defendant, according to the AG\u2019s statement.<\/p>\n
Allentown police assisted in the arrests.\u00a0Among the drugs seized were five pounds of fentanyl, seven pounds of heroin, 3,000 fentanyl pills, 48 pounds of methamphetamine, six pounds of cocaine and two pounds of marijuana, according to the AG.<\/p>\n
Arrested along with Gonzalez are Danny Cancel, 25, of Bethlehem; Joel Castro, 41, of Orefield; Sally Garcia-Colon, 39, of Emmaus; Jorge Marrero-Rodriguez, 60, of Allentown; Jordan Pagan, 37, of Leola; John Pagan DeJesus, 49, of Whitehall; Israel Perez, 45, of Bethlehem; Anthony Planas, 42, of Bethlehem and Hanzel Rivera, 37, of Bethlehem.<\/p>\n
Each defendant is charged with corrupt organizations, possession with intent to deliver, conspiracy, and related offenses.\u00a0Gonzalez\u2019s bail was set at $1 million.<\/p>\n
The nine other defendants are also in custody. Preliminary hearings are scheduled for later this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The state Attorney General\u2019s office on Monday announced the arrest of an Emmaus man who allegedly ran a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52214,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[119,153,155,154,202,3151,433,182,139,3656,434,28,664,432,1654],"class_list":["post-189563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-allentown","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-emmaus","tag-lehigh-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-north-whitehall-township","tag-northampton-county","tag-pennsylvania","tag-south-whitehall-township","tag-top-stories-tmc","tag-whitehall-township"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}