CONCORD, N.H.. (AP) – Seventeen people from New Hampshire and Massachusetts have pleaded guilty to federal narcotics trafficking charges, breaking up a long-running ring that got its cocaine from Colombia.

The New England Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force of local, state and federal officials made the announcement Monday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph LaPlante called it a significant drug and weapons prosecution that effectively dismantled or disrupted the ring that distributed cocaine and methamphetamine mostly in the Lakes Region for more than five years.

Fourteen of the group are from New Hampshire and three are from Massachusetts. Three are women.

In addition to the 17, two other men from Massachusetts also were arrested and awaiting prosecution, Lapland said.

Lapland said the ring imported more than one kilogram of cocaine per month from Colombia, and distributed it in New Hampshire.

Authorities seized more than 38 firearms, including handguns, shotguns and rifles, and more than $125,000 in cash, a motorcycle, and the homes of two of the men in Belmont and Gilmanton.

Those arrested ranged in age from 22 to 55. One was sentenced last month to 10 months in prison, while the others will be sentenced later this month or later in the summer. They faced up to 40 years in prison.

Four were from Laconia, three from Meredith, two each from Gilmanton and Center Harbor, and one each from Belmont, Franklin and Plymouth. The three from Massachusetts were from Chelsea, Revere and Saugus.

Most of them were arrested last November following a two-year investigation started by an informant’s confidential tip of a distributor in Belmont.

AP-ES-06-07-04 1805EDT