Gangs Pennsylvania

Two Amish men have been accused of buying cocaine from a gang called the Pagans and then distributing it to young members of the conservative religious sect. Abner Stoltzfus, 24, and Abner King Stoltzfus, 23, are members of the most conservative Amish sect. The indictment accuses the men of buying drugs between 1993 and 1997.

Two Amish men pleaded not guilty to drug-trafficking charges in federal court in Philadelphia. In what investigators described as the first narcotics case to involve the insulated religious sect, Abner Stoltzfus, 24, and Abner King Stoltzfus, 23, were arraigned on charges of selling methamphetamine and cocaine to their peers in Lancaster County from 1992 to 1997. The two men, who are not related, are alleged to have obtained the drugs from the Pagans, an East Coast motorcycle gang.

A prosecutor summing up his case against six young murder defendants startled a courtroom by slamming the baseball bat that had smashed the 16-year-old victim's skull onto boxes of evidence files. A spectator screamed. One of the jurors began to cry.

Abram Stoltzfus drank his share of beer as a young man, a taste of temptation that is a rite of passage even in a place as mythically moral as Amish country. But selling cocaine? Mingling with a motorcycle gang called the Pagans? With bikers known as "Twisted" and "Fathead"? "I guess it goes to show you we're human beings, just like everyone else," Stoltzfus, 34, said as he stood on the stoop of his immaculate white farmhouse. "These things are going to happen. It's sad."

Abram Stoltzfus drank his share of beer as a young man, a taste of temptation that is a rite of passage even in a place as mythically moral as Amish country. But selling cocaine? Mingling with a motorcycle gang called the Pagans? With bikers known as "Twisted" and "Fathead"? "I guess it goes to show you we're human beings, just like everyone else," Stoltzfus, 34, said as he stood on the stoop of his immaculate white farmhouse. "These things are going to happen. It's sad."

Two Amish men pleaded not guilty to drug-trafficking charges in federal court in Philadelphia. In what investigators described as the first narcotics case to involve the insulated religious sect, Abner Stoltzfus, 24, and Abner King Stoltzfus, 23, were arraigned on charges of selling methamphetamine and cocaine to their peers in Lancaster County from 1992 to 1997. The two men, who are not related, are alleged to have obtained the drugs from the Pagans, an East Coast motorcycle gang.

Standing at the lectern at St. Timothy Roman Catholic Church, Father Joseph Girzone was telling the story of how Jesus performed the miracle of turning water into wine to save the wedding party at Cana the embarrassment of running out only three days into the eight-day marriage feast. "It makes you think," the soft-spoken priest said, peering owlishly at his mostly teen-age audience through large-framed glasses.

Two Amish men have been accused of buying cocaine from a gang called the Pagans and then distributing it to young members of the conservative religious sect. Abner Stoltzfus, 24, and Abner King Stoltzfus, 23, are members of the most conservative Amish sect. The indictment accuses the men of buying drugs between 1993 and 1997.

A prosecutor summing up his case against six young murder defendants startled a courtroom by slamming the baseball bat that had smashed the 16-year-old victim's skull onto boxes of evidence files. A spectator screamed. One of the jurors began to cry.