CRANBERRY TWP — A Butler County man suspected of trafficking cocaine as part of a million dollar drug ring did not stand out as a big-time dealer.

Tyler Dunlap had a “real” job as a laborer. And he lived with his parents at their home in Lancaster Township.

The 30-year-old Dunlap was far from living large, according to Cranberry Township Police Cpl. Bob O'Neill.

“He drove a nice car but he wasn't flamboyant,” said O'Neill, who also heads the southern team of the Butler County Drug Task Force.

Investigators are convinced that even Dunlap's parents were unaware of their son's suspected criminal enterprise.

On Thursday, state narcotics agents and police in Cranberry Township and neighboring counties armed with arrest warrants fanned out to look for Dunlap and eight other members of the purported cocaine ring.

The roundup culminated a two-year investigation of the network, described as a “loosely knit group,” that operated in Butler, Beaver and Allegheny counties.

The group distributed more than 90 kilos of cocaine worth an estimated street value of $2.5 million, according to the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Bureau of Narcotics Investigation, which spearheaded the probe.

A statewide grand jury earlier recommended criminal charges against the ring members.

Cranberry police played a key role in the investigation, especially at the onset.

“We received information that (Dunlap) was a large dealer,” O'Neill said.

Dunlap's alleged cocaine trafficking was the focus of the investigation when it began in 2009, acting Attorney General Bill Ryan acknowledged.

Cranberry, Zelienople and the Harmony area encompassed Dunlap's territory as part of the network that traded primarily in both powder and crack cocaine, authorities said.

State agents and police in three counties conducted a series of undercover drug buys totaling more than one kilo of cocaine, during the investigation.

District Judge Dave Kovach on Thursday arraigned Dunlap and the other alleged ring members who were picked up on the warrants.

Dunlap is charged with six counts each of delivery of cocaine and possession with intent to deliver cocaine, and a lone count of criminal use of a communication facility, all felonies.

He also is charged with misdemeanor possession of cocaine and drug paraphernalia.

Dunlap, who is free on his own recognizance, faces a preliminary hearing June 17.

Dunlap's attorney, James Ross, declined to comment about the charges against his client, when contacted Thursday at his law office in Ambridge, Beaver County.

Police say eight others are connected to the ring and have been charged with a variety of drug offenses, including delivery and possession with intent to deliver.

They are:

• Michael Dapice, 51, of Pittsburgh,

• Stephen Day, 28, of McKees Rocks, Allegheny County,

• Luke Frawley, 33, of Pittsburgh,

• Thomas Frost, 30, of Pittsburgh,

• Edward Kish, 38, of Pittsburgh,

• Ashley Kunich, 28, of Baden, Beaver County,

• Thomas Parker, 33, of Pittsburgh,

• Shawn Williams, 39, of Natrona Heights, Allegheny County.

Deputy Attorney General Kristine Ricketts of the Attorney General's Drug Strike Force will prosecute all the suspects' cases in Butler County.

Other departments that aided in the investigation, authorities said, were, police in Aliquippa, Ambridge, Baden and Harmony Township in Beaver County; and Allegheny County Police, Pittsburgh Police and Sewickley Police in Allegheny County.