Federal prosecutors have obtained indictments against more than 50 people in Manhattan and elsewhere in Kansas as part of a vast drug trafficking investigation allegedly tied to multiple overdose deaths.

Indictments unsealed in the U.S. Court for the District of Kansas this week alleged an extensive conspiracy to distribute drugs often brought to Kansas from Chicago. Law enforcement dubbed the investigation, which ended in dozens of arrests Tuesday, Operation Chicago Connection.

“It took a number of years, but we are getting to the point of achieving justice,” U.S. Attorney for Kansas Stephen McAllister told reporters at a news conference Wednesday.

The investigation was spurred in part by the death of a Kansas State University student.

In September 2017, Maxwell Dandaneu, 18, was found dead in his Manhattan apartment. He had overdosed on fentanyl.

Prosecutors said Dandaneu got drugs from an organization with five conspirators who have been indicted.

Other deaths can also be attributed the drug trafficking ring, prosecutors said, but they didn’t provide details.

Prosecutors said that in 2016 investigators began hearing talk on the streets of Manhattan about traffickers who some called “the Chicago Boys.” Investigators eventually learned that some traffickers were making regular trips to Chicago to bring back drugs.

The allegations are contained in 13 grand jury indictments against 54 people. The cases touch on the trafficking of multiple drugs, including fentanyl, heroin and marijuana.

Skip Jacobs, an assistant U.S. attorney, called it “one criminal network” that can be segregated into different parts.

The charges included in the indictments run the gamut from conspiracy to distribute controlled substances resulting in bodily injury or death to unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon and using social media to further drug trafficking.

The size of the investigation rivals any conducted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Kansas.

“It’s one of the largest operations we’ve ever conducted through the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the state of Kansas and certainly one of the largest, if not the largest, takedown we have ever conducted,” McAllister said.

At least 19 people were scheduled to make initial appearances in court Wednesday.

This story was originally published August 28, 2019 at 12:32 PM.