CRIME 2 men face gun and drug charges

Police used a ram to break through the front door.
YOUNGSTOWN -- Two ex-cons -- one-time members of the Ayers Street Playas, a gang that terrorized the East Side in 2001-- face drug and gun charges.
Ashanti Bunch, 29, and Thomas Moses, 31, were arrested at 411 W. Glenaven Ave. on Thursday evening when members of the Vice Squad used a battering ram to force open the door and enter with a search warrant. Bunch and Thomas each had keys to the South Side house and utility bills in their names.
Moses was arrested on charges of aggravated trafficking in drugs (two counts), illegal possession of a weapon (based on a prior conviction) and possession of cocaine. At arraignment Friday in municipal court, Judge Robert P. Milich set bond at $102,500. Moses will be back in court at 1:45 p.m. Dec. 10 for a preliminary hearing.
Bunch was arrested on charges of illegal possession of a weapon (based on a prior conviction) and drug abuse (marijuana). Two counts of aggravated trafficking in drugs were added Friday morning, which forced postponement of his arraignment until Monday.
Evidence
During the raid, vice cops confiscated an electronic scale with two large chunks of suspected crack cocaine on it; a bag of suspected powdered cocaine found in a shoe; 16 packaged-for-sale bags of suspected marijuana and $70 found in a shoe box; a loaded .357 Magnum found on the heater register; a bag of suspected marijuana found on a window sill; and $600 from Bunch. The evidence was tagged and taken by the inventory officer.
As convicted felons, Bunch and Moses cannot possess or be around firearms.
2001 indictment
Bunch and Thomas and 12 others made news in March 2001 when indicted by a Mahoning County grand jury on charges of engaging in criminal gang activity and trafficking in crack cocaine. At the time, the 14 defendants were members of the Ayers Street Playas, a Bloods-affiliated gang that ruled by intimidation on the East Side.
At the time, they lived on the East Side. The city police department gang unit worked nearly a year to build the case.
Bunch, one of the gang leaders, was convicted of drug trafficking and criminal gang activity and served one year in prison -- from Feb. 20, 2002, to March 1, 2003. He was then placed on three years' parole.
Based on his arrest, the Adult Parole Authority is expected to ask that a parole violation hearing be scheduled in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
Moses was convicted of attempted criminal gang activity and drug trafficking. He received an 18-month sentence on Dec. 31, 2002, with credit for 183 days served in the county jail. He was in prison from Jan. 30, 2003, to Dec. 10, 2003.
Upon release, Moses' driver's license was suspended for five years. He was not placed on parole.
A year or so after the indictment, The Vindicator interviewed several Ayers Street residents and the cop on the East Side beat, Patrolman Michael Walker.
"It's nice to see the kids playing on the streets again and older people outside on their porches," Walker said in May 2002. "Whole blocks were scared. A core group of gang bangers terrified the neighbors."