The state of Pennsylvania wasted a mountain of taxpayer dollars to arrest "five minnows" in the drug trade, a defense attorney told a local jury Wednesday.

An assistant state attorney general, however, told jurors the investigation netted players in a major cocaine operation between Philadelphia and Lancaster.

The David Lambert Enterprise, as prosecutor Iva C. Dougherty called it, employed many sellers on a daily basis, and dealt far beyond its home base in Philadelphia.

"I'm open 24 hours, like Rite-Aid," Lambert would tell his customers, Dougherty argued in opening statements Wednesday morning.

Lambert and four of his charged cohorts are on trial this week for multiple felony drug-dealing counts. The group allegedly trafficked cocaine and marijuana here from Philadelphia, prosecutors claim.

The Philadelphia men on trial are: Lambert, Salim Brokenborough, Henry L. Williams, Amin Owens and David Huggins Jr.

If convicted, Lambert faces a maximum prison sentence that would span his life.

Defense attorneys argue the attorney general's office only made arrests to justify a time-consuming, expensive investigation.

The lawyers said prosecutors have no actual drugs, money or other physical evidence.

"When they brought up the nets, there were no drugs," Cory J. Miller, Brokenborough's attorney, said in his opening statement. "They needed to pull up a whale, and all they pulled up were five minnows."

Local defense attorney Christopher Lyden said the entire case is based on recorded phone conversations — filled with "street slang and jargon."

"The entire case comes down to the interpretation of language and an assumption," said Lyden, Williams' lawyer.

That language was discussed during the testimony of David Carolina, a narcotics agent with the AG's office.

Carolina listened to thousands of the recorded phone calls. He said all five defendants were involved in the incriminating conversations. He said he matched the defendants to their voices through surveillance and in-person interviews.

Words like "onions," "timberlands," and "squirrels" are commonly used as references to drugs, according to testimony.

"There's not a book out there with this language in it," Carolina said, noting he used his nine years' experience to become fluent in the street language. "They use coded language … to avoid detection by law-enforcement."

Lyden said many of the words on the recordings are part of everyday language used by law-abiding citizens.

"That's the goal of the drug-dealing: to use everyday language so nobody knows what they're talking about," Carolina replied.

Lyden and other defense attorneys pressed Carolina and another AG agent who testified about the immense cost of such an investigation. Lyden asked Carolina how many agents are involved in a wire-tap case like the Lambert investigation.

"It takes up a lot of the manpower in our office," the agent replied.

Some of the defendants, at times, appeared casual in the courtroom. They exchanged words and laughs with one another during one sidebar.

Williams, dressed in a purple T-shirt, asked a deputy sheriff for a vegetarian lunch for the rest of trial.

The trial is expected to last three to four weeks with County Judge David L. Ashworth presiding.

bhambright@lnpnews.com