CLARION COUNTY, Pennsylvania - A twelve month investigation by the Clarion County Drug Task Force, with the help of the Mahoning Valley Drug Unit, brings down a drug trafficking operation.

Eleven in all were arrested in a drug trafficking operation that utilized Interstate 80 from Youngstown to Clarion County.

Clarion County's Drug Task Force used undercover informants to make buys from street dealers that lead them to, who authorities are calling, the middlemen of the operation, Robert Thurston and Michael Ratliff. Thurston and Ratliff are two former Youngstown residents who set up homes in Clarion County. Clarion County District Attorney Mark Aaron said the two "still utilized there Youngstown connections to bring heroin into the area and sell out of the apartments and trailers where they took up residence."

The Clarion Drug Task Force says Ratliff traded heroin for an AK-47. Upon his arrest, authorities found him sleeping on top of the firearm.

Ratliff plead guilty to possession of a firearm and has been sentenced four to eight years for the crime.

That lead authorities to what is being called the top level of the operation, three Youngstown residents. Michele Burkes and Jawonn Hymes are both behind bars and authorities have issued a warrant for Terrance Rushton.

"The common practice is they come back, they sell a portion of it and use a portion of it, use the proceeds, go to Youngstown and re-up," Aaron said. They then sell the heroin for double of what they it purchased for.

Randy Williams of the Mahoning Valley Drug Unit says a federal grant was given to the Valley after Youngstown was identified as high intensity drug area. He says unfortunately every community deals with drug issues.