The Associated Press
DETROIT — Federal prosecutors have charged 17 people in a seven-year crackdown on a multistate cocaine trafficking ring known as the Black Mafia Family.
The indictments, issued Dec. 15 but not made public until Thursday, brings to 58 the number of people charged in the case, the U.S. attorney’s office in Detroit said in a news release.
Charges in the latest indictment include money laundering and conspiracy to distribute cocaine.
The Black Mafia Family dealt cocaine in the Detroit metropolitan area beginning in the early 1990s, extending across the country.
Authorities pursuing the ring have seized about 1,100 pounds of cocaine and about $19 million in money and other assets since 2000, according to the statement.
Jacob Arabov, a New York celebrity jeweler known in the hip-hop world as “Jacob the Jeweler,” is awaiting trial in Detroit on accusations that he helped launder about $270 million in drug profits for the group. He has pleaded not guilty.