YOUNGSTOWN Grand jury indicts 10 in heroin ring

By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Some bad news for suburbanites who come to town to buy heroin brought in from New York: You need to shop elsewhere.
A Mahoning County grand jury has indicted one woman and nine men on charges that include trafficking in heroin, possession of heroin and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity. The 37-count indictment includes a forfeiture specification for cars and properties.
Two men, Agapito Morales and Wilfredo Morales, live in Brooklyn, N.Y.; the other suspects live in Youngstown.
The buyers, mostly white and in their mid-20s to mid-50s, came from Mahoning County suburbs, said Lt. William Powell, Youngstown Police Department vice squad commander. Some traveled from Trumbull County and western Pennsylvania.
Pattern of corruption: In this case, the state charge of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity -- which mirrors the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations statute -- represents uncharted territory, said Jennifer Kirr, an assistant Trumbull County prosecutor. Kirr is assigned to the Mahoning Valley Drug Task Force, based in Youngstown.
"We've not done a state RICO case at this level before," Kirr said. "What we have is distribution of narcotics in two states."
If convicted, defendants face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
"The network distributed a mass quantity of heroin. If we just took out the street dealer, it only disturbs the network," Kirr said. "The RICO allows us to dismantle the network."
Arrests in Youngstown began this morning.
Friday night, four members of the task force and New York police pulled off an undercover drug buy and arrested the main supplier, Agapito Morales, his wife and brother in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bushwick, Powell said.
The wife and brother face charges only in New York, not Ohio. Wilfredo Morales, another relative, had not been arrested as of this morning.
"The take-down went smoothly," Powell said of Friday's arrests. "They were taken to jail that night and will be held without bond -- not like here," where judges allow bond to be posted.
Commends police: Bridget Brennan, a special narcotics prosecutor in New York, said she has rarely seen the willingness and tenacity Youngstown police showed in following the drugs to the supplier. New York, a major importation center for cocaine and heroin, gets hundreds of calls each year from out-of-state police agencies but only a few officers make the effort for a joint investigation, she said.
"What they did was remarkable. That's very smart law enforcement to get to the source," Brennan said. "I take my hat off to them."
Without the Youngstown team, which had the undercover operative, Agapito Morales would not have been caught, she said.
"That's the main mission of the task force, to stop the supply," Powell said.
Because New York has much stiffer penalties for drug offenses than Ohio, those convicted in the Empire State face 15 years to life in prison.
In beginning: The case, investigated by members of the Mahoning Valley Drug Task Force, with assistance of the YPD vice squad, started small with the interception of a heroin shipment on a Greyhound bus in July 1999.
Task force members who worked the case included three YPD patrolmen, a Mahoning County deputy sheriff, Poland Village patrolman, Youngstown State University Campus police officer and Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation agent.
Using a federal grant, undercover drug buys started in August 2000 and reached 1,100 bindles before the indictment.
A bindle, roughly the size of the head of a wooden kitchen match, represents one $20 dose. A bundle equals 10 bindles.
Some heroin users need only a $20 bindle to keep them high all day. Others need a bundle to sustain the euphoria.
Hiding addiction: If a businessman from the suburbs, for example, wanted to conceal his heroin addiction, he might inject it between his fingers, in his eyelids, between his toes or behind his knees.
After the initial rush, users, in street parlance, "go on the nod," alternating between a wakeful and drowsy state.
Three "mules" -- the couriers who traveled to New York to buy heroin -- put roughly $500,000 worth of it on the streets here every month, said Deputy Jeff Allen. The drug dealers sold out of houses on the South and East sides of town and made car-to-car sales.
"They kept mobile, moving on when they felt the heat," Patrolman Robert Patton said.
One "cash and carry" house on East Lucius Avenue is only a few doors away from St. Dominic Church, Powell said. The dealers, aware of the traffic they generated at the house, would sometimes have the buyers call ahead and then deliver to cars down the street.
Sent here: Lt. Dave Allen, commander of the drug task force, said most of the Youngstown suspects once lived in New York.
"They were sent here to mix in, set up shop and keep multiplying,"' Allen said. "That's the only reason they're here."
Despite the high profits, the locals now under indictment didn't have fancy lifestyles, Allen said. Some used heroin, which ate up their profits, he said.
A kilo (2.2 pounds) of high-quality heroin can cost $300,000 and when cut and sold on the streets can easily bring a profit of three times that amount, Powell said. A kilo of crack costs only $35,000.
Allen called the 20-month investigation a miserable experience but well worth it. Task force members traveled three times to New York to make drug buys.
By taking out the main suppliers here and in New York, the heroin pipeline shuts down, Allen said. He predicted it would take months for new suppliers to emerge and operate somewhere in the Mahoning Valley.
"Local drug prevention providers will be extremely busy," Allen said.
Drug withdrawal: The National Institute on Drug Abuse said withdrawal can occur within a few hours of the last dose. Symptoms include drug craving, restlessness, muscle and bone pain, insomnia, diarrhea and vomiting, cold flashes with goose bumps ("cold turkey") and kicking movement ("kicking the habit").
Users also can smoke or snort the drug, known on the streets as smack, H, skag and junk. Heroin, a highly addictive drug, is processed from morphine, a substance found in the seedpod of the Asian poppy plant.
"Crack is still king," Patton said. "Heroin, with greater profit, is a growing problem."