YOUNGSTOWN Heroin has its brand loyalty

The prosecutor's office wants high bonds to ensure that the accused stay in jail.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Those who package heroin, like most savvy marketing professionals, know the benefit of brand recognition.
Packagers use an ink stamp that features a name and sometimes a drawing to mark their plastic-bagged product, local authorities say. Heroin is sold in $20 one-dose bindles. Ten bindles equal a bundle.
Users -- mostly white and from the suburbs -- bought about $500,000 worth of heroin each month here. They chose from bindles stamped "rock" and "spider web," to name just two.
"It's kind of a way to advertise their stuff," said Lt. William Powell, Youngstown Police Department's vice squad commander. "If you get 'rock' and it's good, you try to get it again."
Arrested Monday: Police, who hit the streets Monday, arrested one woman and seven men accused of being part of a New York-to-Youngstown heroin ring. Officers seized guns and cash, a rock ink stamp, and bindles of heroin with a spider web imprint.
The sweep came after the arrest Friday in Brooklyn, N.Y., of Agapito Morales, described by police as the main heroin supplier for Youngstown. He and a Brooklyn relative, Wilfredo Morales, who remains at large, face charges here and in New York.
A Mahoning County grand jury indictment of the 10 suspects includes charges of trafficking in heroin, possession of heroin and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity. The charges culminate a 20-month investigation by the Mahoning Valley Drug Task Force.
Those in custody were to be arraigned this morning in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. High bonds were expected to be requested by Jennifer Kirr, an assistant Trumbull County prosecutor assigned to the task force.
If convicted, suspects face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
Homes searched: On Monday, police searched homes on West Florida and East Lucius avenues on the city's South Side and confiscated cars, trucks, cash, drugs, documents and drug paraphernalia, Powell said. All property seized is subject to forfeiture.
Two safety-deposit boxes police opened with keys found at the Florida Avenue residence yielded $50,000 and an assortment of jewelry, he said. Officers spent two hours at the duplex apartment, wading through remodeling clutter.
The West Lucius Avenue house remained under surveillance until police had meticulously cataloged items seized at the Florida Avenue duplex.
Because the occupants were unaware of the surveillance, "it was business as usual" at the Lucius house, Powell said. A half-dozen drug transactions took place in the street, not far from St. Dominic Church.
Sent from New York: 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."
With the arrests of 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 else in the Mahoning Valley.
Despite the high profits, the local people now under indictment didn't have fancy lifestyles, Allen said. Some, he said, used heroin, which ate up their profits.
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 $35,000.
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."