Officers had arrested about 33 members of the group, which is accused of distributing $31 million worth of the drug over three years, Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett said Thursday. The investigation is ongoing, Corbett spokeswoman Shonna Clark said Friday.

Investigators tapped phones and listened to hundreds of conversations between the suspected ringleaders and their customers, according to a criminal complaint. Undercover officers made numerous drug buys and worked with confidential informants to make the case, prosecutors said.

The ring hauled in more than $200,000 per week, authorities said.

Hispanic immigrants began settling in Hazleton in large numbers several years ago, lured from New York, Philadelphia and other cities by cheap housing, low crime and the availability of work in nearby factories and farms.

Last year, Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta pushed through a tough law that targeted landlords who rented to illegal immigrants and businesses that employed them. Dozens of municipalities around the nation copied the measure, but a federal judge struck it down in July as unconstitutional.

Hazleton, with about 30,000 residents, is 80 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

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