The Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office has arrested 13 people in connection to heroin/fentanyl and methamphetamine trafficking rings operating in Erie and Elk counties.
The investigation started in 2019 after agents from the Office’s Bureau of Narcotics Investigations discovered Thomas Wallace, Margaret Wisor, Joshua Pulliam and Joshua Coles were trafficking large amounts of both drugs in the counties.
They later identified nine other people for trafficking methamphetamine: Dustin Black, Ashley Bowley, Adam Curci, Rikki Curcio, Andrew Hoover, Joseph Krise, James McDonald, Cayla Royer, and Michael VanDyne.
Police executed search warrants in October 2020, when agents seized more than eight pounds or 700,000 doses of methamphetamine.
Wisor, Pulliam, Coles, Black, Bowley, Curci, Hoover, McDonald, and VanDyne are all currently behind bars on unrelated charges.
Wallace, Curcio, Krise and Royer were taken into custody this week and charged with criminal conspiracy and drug-related offenses.
In messages from April 2019 through Sept. 9, 2020, Pulliam told Wallace where he could obtain meth to distribute through Erie, Clearfield and Elk Counties, according to investigators. He also directed Wisor to meth for sale in Elk County, Coles to the drug for distribution in Erie County, and Bloom to meth to deal in Clarion County. He is an inmate at SCI Albion.
Investigators said Wallace delivered 11.16 grams of meth to an undercover agent for $3,600 in the City of Erie Aug. 29, 2020, and 112.15 grams of the same drug to another agent for $3,200 in Millcreek Township Sept. 24, 2020. Court documents showed his last address as the 1100 block of E. 33rd St. in Erie.
Coles is accused of coordinating with Pulliam and Wallace between June 18 and Oct. 10, 2020 to traffick meth. He was recently living in the 1100 block of W. 20th St. in Erie.
Hoover allegedly pulled together his money with that from Krise, Wisor, McDonald and an undercover agent to purchase and redistribute meth. He is currently at the Erie County Corrections Center.
You can read the criminal complaints here.