YOUNGSTOWN Police arrest 5 in gang

Guns found on two of the defendants likely will lead to more charges.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A section of the East Side should be free of open-air drug sales with the arrest of five members of the Lincoln Knolls Crips, police say.
Indicted secretly last week and arrested Tuesday on charges of engaging in a pattern of criminal gang activity and trafficking in crack cocaine were:
UKibwe Beacham, 30, of Mumford Avenue.
UKarim Beacham, 24, same.
UJerry Thomas, 29, of Duncan Lane.
UEdmund J. Miller, 25, same.
UCobie L. Phillips, 27, of McGuffey Road.
All five were arrested by members of the Youngstown Police Department-FBI gang unit and Mahoning Valley Violent Crimes Task Force after a lengthy investigation. They were to be video-arraigned today.
Guns found
Loaded guns found on Kibwe Beacham and Thomas will likely lead to additional charges, said Lt. Robin Lees, YPD spokesman.
The gang counted among its members Wayne P. Gilliam, 21, recently convicted in the murder of a 3-month-old boy, and John Drummond Jr., 25, whose murder trial is pending. In March, Jiyen C. Dent Jr. was in a swing in his parents' living room on Rutledge Drive and killed by shots fired from outside.
Detectives say Drummond was the shooter and Gilliam was the driver.
"We've been over there a lot; this should crush the open-air drug sales between McCartney Road and Oak Street," said city Detective Sgt. Mike Lambert. "They sold crack on the corners, once in a while from a house. They had their own little area over there locked down."
Lambert and FBI Special Agent Mike Cizmar oversee the gang unit's day-to-day operations. Lambert said the five arrested Tuesday were found at home or their East Side hangouts and none put up resistance.
"Hopefully it will quiet it down over there. People will be able to play outside with their kids," Lambert said. "The neighbors have been complaining about them for years."
Lambert said the Crips, who wore blue gang colors, "never really got it together, although they like the drug-profit lifestyle." He characterized the group, which operated since the mid-1990s, as the "Apple Dumpling Gang."
Many raids
"We did raid after raid after raid -- same people, same houses," Lambert said. The members' criminal history allowed police to pursue the criminal gang activity charge, he said.
The gang was never big-time, but after stints in jail or probation, it never stopped its drug activity, Lambert said.
"We think this breaks the back of that criminal enterprise over there," said Police Chief Robert E. Bush Jr. "We're going to put maintenance in place to ensure that we have a patrol presence in these areas to maintain zero tolerance."
meade@vindy.com