The indictment of five Canton men brings the total number of people involved in an alleged cocaine ring in that city to 22.

The U.S. Attorney's Office announced the indictment Thursday in Canton.

Mike Tobin, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Cleveland, says the operation brought crack and powder cocaine up from Columbus to two men, and then eventually to the streets of Canton.

"It would come up from Columbus to Canton, where it usually made its way to two people, a man named Jasmine Watkins, or another man named Jerry Gordon," Tobin tells AkronNewsNow.com.

The U.S. Attorney's Office says Watkins has already pleaded guilty and faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years in prison.

Tobin says drugs are often accompanied by violence, and that authorities are still investigating if the cocaine ring suspects are linked to shootings and other street violence in Canton.

22 year-old Jamail Cortez Mitchell, 24 year-old Chad Irvin Tucker, 23 year-old Cruz M. Brown, 28 year-old Jermaine E. Gaitor and 57 year-old Kevin Slater were all arrested this Thursday morning.

An earlier indictment named 17 people, and Tobin says all but two of the 22 were arrested by Thursday afternoon.