11 defendants sentenced in Arkansas drug ring

FORT SMITH, Ark. (AP) - Federal prosecutors say 11 people have been sentenced in an effort to break up a Fort Smith-based drug trafficking operation.

U.S. Attorney Conner Eldridge says the defendants were charged last June in a federal grand jury indictment following an investigation that began in 2012 into an alleged drug ring that Eldridge says was a large-scale drug-trafficking organization in the Fort Smith area.

Eldridge says the ring sold drugs throughout the River Valley area and that investigators made controlled buys, conducted surveillance and monitored the movements of suspects.

Ultimately, investigators made 49 arrests, seized 22 pounds of methamphetamine and 10 guns.