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Several factors make region very attractive for dealers from N.Y., Philly.

This region is a magnet for drug traffickers, an expert in gang assessment said.

That’s because of a network of highways and interstates crossing the landscape, a dozen low-income apartment complexes within a 12-mile radius and six colleges and universities in one county.

“When I was the assistant (Luzerne County adult probation) chief, I interviewed the Crips, the Bloods, Jamaicans and Columbians,” King’s College criminal justice Professor James Marinello said Friday. “It always fascinated me why they would come here.” A 2011 report titled, Eastern Pennsylvania Drug and Gang Threat Assessment, includes a map illustrating the source of illicit drugs in urban areas of Eastern Pennsylvania.

Northeastern Pennsylvania’s source for heroin, cocaine and marijuana is New York/New Jersey via Interstates 80, 380 and 84, while drug peddlers from Philadelphia use the Northeastern Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, according to the 2011 report.

A low cost of living and a high demand for illicit drugs makes it an easy attraction for traffickers and gang members, Marinello said.

“It’s a market and it’s a good market,” Marinello said.

Street gangs have capitalized on that.

The state Office of Attorney General and Wilkes-Barre police in October 2008 busted two street gangs – the Long Island Boys and the Jersey City Boys, which operated out of the Sherman Hills apartment complex in Wilkes-Barre and in the South Wilkes-Barre neighborhood, respectively.

The Long Island gang sold 3,000 to 5,000 heroin packets a week with an estimated street value of $60,000 to $100,000 a week for nearly two years, according to the AG office.

Members of the Long Island Gang were linked to the torture of a 15-year-old boy in an apartment on Coal Street, arrest and court records say.

After the two gangs were dismantled with arrests, the Sex, Money, Murder faction of the Bloods moved in the area, selling 2,500 to 5,000 heroin packets a week, earning at least $15 million before that gang was busted in October 2010.

The ring leader of Sex, Money, Murder, identified as Albert “Smirk” Rosembert, 28, of Newark, N.J., was sentenced in Luzerne County Court in April to seven to 14 years in state prison.