Two more New Kensington men are among 13 people federally indicted after the Department of Justice accused them of being part of a drug trafficking organization.
Andres Flores-Cedeno, 39, of New Kensington, and Marcos Francisco-Tomas, 34, of Riverside, Calif., were previously indicted after authorities arrested them in 2024. Authorities said the arrests took place at a home two doors down from Martin Elementary School, the New Kensington-Arnold School District’s kindergarten school.
Authorities said they had 22 pounds of cocaine in the house.
On Wednesday, the Justice Department announced New Kensington residents Raymond Simmons, 54, and Toriano Wilson, 46, have also been indicted by a federal grand jury for conspiring the distribute cocaine. That’s in addition to Aaron Mitchell, 48, of Pittsburgh.
Authorities also accuse Mitchell of carrying a .45-caliber pistol as a convicted felon.
The other eight people indicted come from New York City, Miami, Los Angeles, Albuquerque, New Mexico and other California locales.
The release didn’t describe the supposed relationship between those indicted or how the alleged drug operation functioned.
Court documents mentioned authorities had seized more than $250,000 in cash from several hotel rooms in North Fayette, about $21,000 from a Penn Hills home and nearly $16,000 from the New Kensington home where Flores-Cedeno and Francisco-Tomas were arrested.
The Drug Enforcement Administration conducted the investigation leading to the 2024 indictments. The prosecution is part of a Homeland Security task force charged with eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs and transnational criminal organizations, according to a release from the Justice Department.
Flores-Cedeno, who authorities say was carrying a Mexican passport, was arrested outside the New Kensington house in 2024; Francisco-Tomas ran and was apprehended in the school’s parking lot, according to court records.
Investigators said they had been watching the men come and go from the house for months before they moved in to arrest them after seeing Flores-Cedeno get into a tractor-trailer that stopped in front of the house and Francisco-Tomas get out of the truck carrying a duffel bag believed to contain cocaine.