One of 11 defendants arrested in a drug trafficking ring labeled "Operation 93 Pipeline" was placed in a special state prison program recently after previously pleading guilty to drug charges.

Erik Feliz, 23, of Hazleton, was placed in the state Intermediate Punishment Program for two years by Carbon County Judge Steven R. Serfass. The program is for defendants with addiction problems. A person spends about seven months in prison, then a period of time in an intensive inpatient drug rehabilitation program and the final months in a halfway house.Feliz previously pleaded guilty to one count each of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance and criminal conspiracy to deliver a controlled substance.Feliz was arrested along with Matteo Puddu, Curtis Margle, Jason R. Will, David Allen Anthony Jr. and Brittany Michele Vincent, all of Carbon County; Joshua Ynoe Mejia, Bradesky Santos Jr., Anthony Jordan Vega, all of Luzerne County; Cynthia Ann Hippenstiel of Columbia County; and Robert Alan Fox of Bucks County.The state Attorney General's office, along with the Carbon County Drug Task Force, accused the 11 for their part in a drug trafficking operation allegedly responsible for distributing $1.5 million worth of heroin in Carbon County over a four-month period. The time frame for the operation was December 2014 to March 2015.Feliz was also ordered to supply a DNA sample and pay court costs of about $1,000. He is currently an inmate in the state correctional institution at Camp Hill, Dauphin County, where he was sent to be evaluated for the state IPP.The name given the operation was because authorities said the defendants would go to the Luzerne County area and get heroin then return to Carbon, using Route 93.