Monroe gang member pleads guilty to heroin trafficking

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Arthur Taylor, 36, of Tobyhanna, pleaded guilty on Feb. 1, before U.S. District Court Judge Malachy E. Mannion to participating in a drug trafficking conspiracy.

According to U.S. Attorney David J. Freed, Taylor participated in a drug trafficking conspiracy that was responsible for distributing more than 100 grams of heroin (equivalent to more than 4,000 retail bags), marijuana, crack cocaine, Percocet, and molly in the Poconos and in the state of Maine beginning in 2010 and for several years thereafter.

Taylor admitted to being a member of the Black P-Stones, a street gang whose male members were “beaten-in” to the gang and whose female members were ”sexed-in” to the gang.

Taylor and other P-Stones obtained heroin and other drugs from suppliers in New York and distributed them to others in Monroe County and in Maine. The P-Stones used females to transport the drugs to Maine.

Sentencing for Taylor will be scheduled at a later date. Taylor was indicted by a federal grand jury in January 2018, as a result of an investigation by the FBI, the Pennsylvania State Police, local and state police in Maine, the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office, and local police in Monroe County. Assistant U.S. Attorney Francis P. Sempa is prosecuting the case.

This prosecution is part of an extensive investigation by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force.

OCDETF is a joint federal, state and local cooperative approach to combat drug trafficking.

It is the nation’s primary tool for disrupting and dismantling major drug trafficking organizations, targeting national and regional level drug trafficking organizations and coordinating the necessary law enforcement entities and resources to disrupt or dismantle the targeted criminal organization and seize their assets.