PITTSTON TWP., LUZERNE CO. (WOLF) \u2014 A warehouse in Pittston Township is linked to a statewide drug-trafficking investigation that led to charges against 12 people accused of distributing high-potency THC products through convenience stores and vape shops, authorities said.<\/p>\n
The Pennsylvania Attorney General\u2019s Office announced the charges Monday, saying investigators traced about $18.7 million in alleged illegal proceeds and seized roughly 150,000 items from warehouses in Pittston Township, Plum Borough and Bensalem.<\/p>\n
Investigators searched a warehouse at 159 Center Point Blvd. in the Center Point Commons industrial district in 2025, according to a statewide grand jury indictment. The indictment alleges 14 pallets of illegal products were seized there.<\/p>\n
Authorities said the organization moved marijuana and high-level THC products from warehouses to retail stores across Pennsylvania. Some products were packaged in candy-style bags and marketed in ways investigators said were designed to appeal to children.<\/p>\n
The indictment alleges Nirav Patel and Madhav Patel operated the Luzerne County warehouse. Both are among the 12 defendants charged in the case.<\/p>\n
The other defendants are Albina Kumar, Duttkumar Patel, Dharmeshkumar Patel, Palak Patel, Divyesh Patel, Ketankumar Patel, Niravkumar Vora, Roshniben Patel, Ankitkumar Patel and Mitul Patel.<\/p>\n
All 12 defendants have been arraigned on charges that include corrupt organizations, dealing in proceeds of illegal activity and drug-trafficking offenses, according to the Attorney General\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
The Luzerne and Lackawanna County district attorneys\u2019 offices, along with Jenkins Township and Moosic police, assisted in the investigation.<\/p>\n
The charges are allegations, and all defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSTON TWP., LUZERNE CO. (WOLF) \u2014 A warehouse in Pittston Township is linked to a statewide drug-trafficking investigation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-286598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286598","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=286598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}