A cross-country cocaine pipeline dried up after 44 pounds of the powder bound for Amityville were seized in California, leading to the indictment of 20 people who acted as drug couriers and distributors, Suffolk and federal officials said yesterday.

Authorities took down a coast-to-coast drug ring on Long Island after a yearlong investigation that led to the arrests of 20 people. Members of the massive operation would transport as much as 40 pounds of cocaine at a time from Los Angeles, said Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota. The drugs

The Suffolk County District Attorney's Office and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) were involved in the takedown of a cocaine distribution network and the indictments of 19 people on charges of operating as a major drug trafficker and conspiracy to distribute cocaine.