Jury deliberations in the trial of two members of the Philadelphia chapter of the Outlaws Motorcycle Gang began late Thursday, with the prosecution urging the panel members to use common sense to convict the men of taking part in a $5 million methamphetamine drug ring.

“When you begin your deliberations you are not going to find that the Commonwealth bamboozled you,” said Assistant Attorney General Andrew Rongaus in his closing. “You are going to find that they are drug dealers.”

On trial are Jeffrey J. "Death Row" Hampton, 37, of Berlin N.J., and Charles D. "The Panhead" Rees, 55, of Norristown, who were among dozens of men and women charged in August 2008 as part of a state Attorney General's Office drug investigation known as "Operation Ice Breaker."

In the months since, dozens of the 40 suspected drug dealers arrested in the operation have pleaded guilty before Judge Howard F. Riley Jr., and are either awaiting sentencing or have been sentenced. But Hampton and Rees, who is acting president of the Outlaws, have steadfastly maintained their innocence.

Attorneys for the men told the jury in their losing arguments that the authorities had overstepped themselves when they thought they could tie the Outlaws to the drug ring, the leaders of which have already pleaded guilty and, in some cases, been sentenced. Rees was the acting president of the Outlaws, while Hampton served as his right-hand man.

Defense attorney J. Michael Farrell of Philadelphia, representing Hampton, said that state drug investigators believed they had “hit the jackpot” when they found that Hampton was buying drugs from William Lees, the drug ringleader. Farrell described his client as a drug addict and abuser, but not a drug dealer, as the prosecution contended.

“They thought they were building a mountain, a glamorous mountain,” Farrell said of the state Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement. “But it turned out to be an anthill.”