YOUNGSTOWN City worker faces federal charges

The street worker is accused of drug-dealing.
YOUNGSTOWN -- Michael A. Dowdy, a city street department worker on unpaid leave, has been ordered held by U.S. marshals pending action by a federal grand jury on drug charges.
Dowdy was ordered to remain in custody Tuesday, his 37th birthday, by U.S. Magistrate Judge George J. Limbert.
Dowdy was arrested Dec. 5 at his Crandall Avenue home on one count of possession of drugs and two counts of aggravated drug trafficking within 1,000 feet of a school. His North Side home is close to Hayes Middle School.
The state charges were dismissed Thursday in municipal court, pending action in federal court.
The search of his home followed two undercover drug buys and an investigation headed by the U.S. Treasury Department Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
About 71/2 pounds of powdered cocaine, $60,000 and four firearms were seized, reports show. The cocaine was field tested at the scene.
Dowdy admitted that he's been trafficking in drugs since 1986, said Frank A. D'Alesio, resident agent-in-charge of the Youngstown ATF. D'Alesio described Dowdy as a "pretty sizable dealer."
Also charged
Judge Limbert also ordered that Elmer C. Austin, 36, who has addresses in Warren and Youngstown, remain in custody pending action by a federal grand jury.
Austin, who is accused of conspiring with Dowdy, was arrested Dec. 9 on two counts of distributing drugs within 1,000 feet of a school. The state charges against him were also dismissed in municipal court.
If convicted at the federal level, Dowdy faces a mandatory 20 years in prison and Austin faces a mandatory 10, D'Alesio said. The penalties are enhanced because the drug sales were near a school, he said.
The investigation included ATF, sheriff's departments in Mahoning and Trumbull counties, Youngstown and Niles police and Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation.