PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) -
A
U.S. District judge sentenced two Amish men to a year in prison
for conspiring with a motorcycle gang to sell drugs at the youth
hoedowns of the insular Old Order Amish religious sect.
About 100 Amish men and women crowded into a Philadelphia
courtroom Wednesday to hear U.S. District Judge Clarence
Newcomer impose a penalty that he said he hoped would send a
message about crime to other Amish young people. It was the
first federal narcotics case to involve Pennsylvania's Lancaster
Amish community.
Abner Stoltzfus, 25, and Abner King Stoltzfus, 24, were
sentenced to spend 12 months each in federal incarceration,
although authorities said the time likely would be served under
a federal work-release program at a low-security facility. The
men, who are not related, then would serve five years of federal
probation, including 180 days of house arrest.
The two men pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges in October
1997. Both are from the town of Gap, just east of Lancaster,
which is the center of Amish life in Pennsylvania.
Authorities charged the men with buying cocaine and
methamphetamines from members of an East Coast motorcycle gang
called The Pagans and selling them to adolescents from Amish
groups known as the Crickets, the Antiques and the Pilgrims. The
sales occurred between 1992 and 1997.
The Amish, who arrived in Pennsylvania during colonial times,
formally eschew electricity, cars and other modern conveniences
for the simpler ways of the 18th century.
