Police charge 6 in Pa. Poconos drug ring

SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) — A drug task force including local and federal agents has arrested a suspected gang member authorities say was the largest supplier of cocaine in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountain region.

Federal prosecutors say 29-year-old Jyrell Bowers and 28-year-old Gerard Clay, both of Tobyhanna, are members of the Bloods street gang who distributed cocaine, heroin and marijuana in the Poconos. They were arrested Tuesday along with four other people in a series of raids in northeastern Pennsylvania.

Authorities say Bowers would bring drugs from New York City and Newark, N.J., and distribute them in Pennsylvania.

Bowers, Clay and three other men are in federal custody awaiting bail hearings next week. A fifth suspect was released on his own recognizance.