YOUNGSTOWN Task force agents trace drugs to source throughout country

Who has run of the office? Special Agent Dino, a 6-year-old Belgian Malinois.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Like cocaine couriers, the local Drug Enforcement Administration task force travels cross-country.
"Coca leaves aren't grown in Youngstown. They're processed in labs in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia and often get to the U.S. through the Southwest border states," said a task force member. "We try to go after the source -- [the drugs] got here somehow. Let's say it's Texas or California, we try to go after those people."
The undercover task force member, assigned by a local police department, asked that his name not be used. No sense letting drug traffickers know his identity.
"I feel like I'm making a bigger impact going to the source," he said. "We're not just going after the drugs, we're going after the assets."
Forfeited assets include cash and the proceeds from the sale of vehicles, jewelry and houses. The money gets pumped back into drug-fighting efforts.
The DEA task force includes two agents from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation and one officer each from police departments in Boardman, Beaver, Canfield, Poland Village, Salem, Warren and Youngstown. The agents and officers have federal commissions, which give them expanded jurisdiction and the ability to coordinate efforts with DEA offices worldwide.
Task force members' salaries are paid by their respective departments. The DEA provides additional training, pays their overtime and expenses and supplies them with a car, phone, other equipment and drug-buy money.
Out-of-state ties
Aside from California and Texas, drug cases that originated here -- the local DEA covers eight counties -- have led to arrests in New York and New Mexico. The cases often cross county lines, too, with drugs brought into Trumbull County being picked up by a buyer from Mahoning County, for example.
"Almost every case has an out-of-state tentacle," said DEA Special Agent Douglas Lamplugh, resident agent in charge of the Youngstown office. "A case we had last summer involved the Mexican federal police and DEA offices in Los Angeles and New York. The cell was based in Warren."
Lamplugh said it's common to have drug couriers, who arrive by plane, bus or car, stay at motels near interstate highways, such as those in Liberty and Boardman. Agents try to work the cases backward, from buyer to the courier at the motel and up the chain to the supplier, he said.
Lamplugh, who took over the office in March 2003, said his law enforcement career began as a cop in southeastern Pennsylvania. He's worked at DEA offices in Philadelphia; Mobile, Ala.; McAllen, Texas; Pensacola, Fla.; and DEA headquarters in Arlington, Va. He also pulled an overseas assignment in Copenhagen.
"Large multistate drug rings, that's what the task force targets," Lamplugh said. "We do undercover buys, use informants and receive intelligence from a variety of sources."
Dino the drug-sniffing dog
As Lamplugh, seated in a conference room, talked about drug cases, the door opened with the push of a long black nose and in bounded Dino, clenching a fluorescent green pull toy. The 6-year-old Belgian Malinois was followed by his handler, BCI Special Agent Kim Nusser.
"That's his favorite toy," Nusser said, giving the saliva-wet chewy cylinder a yank. "He has the run of the office."
Dino responded with appreciative growls as he dug his sharp teeth deep into the toy and shook his head from side to side as he and Nusser played tug of war. Once in a while Dino lets Nusser win.
Dino goes along to sniff out drugs when search warrants are served by the task force. He's also called into action by the Ohio State Highway Patrol and police departments that don't have a narcotics dog.
Lamplugh said imaginative drug couriers conceal cocaine or marijuana in vehicle "traps," natural voids, such as behind door panels. In box trucks, drugs can be found behind false walls.
"That's where dogs like Dino come in handy," he said. "He's the best."
Misuse of legal drugs
Lamplugh said the DEA, aside from targeting illegal drugs, also focuses on the diversion of legal drugs into the illegal market.
Those cases are investigated by Andy Bodzak, on loan to the DEA from the Canfield Police Department; Tom Malone, a Youngstown patrolman assigned to the Mahoning Valley Law Enforcement Task Force; and George Pavlich, an Ohio State Board of Pharmacy agent. The three investigate doctors, nurses, pharmacists, prescription frauds, street traffickers and so forth.
"The three of us work as a team, combine our skills and supplies," Bodzak said. "George Pavlich used to handle all of it himself. He and Malone taught me everything."
Roughly 95 percent of the cases are prosecuted in state courts in Trumbull and Mahoning counties, and the balance are prosecuted federally.
Drug abuse, Bodzak said, touches 1 percent to 2 percent of every profession, including law enforcement. His team has dealt with physicians who overprescribe, nurses who inject themselves with drugs and pharmacists who steal drugs.
OxyContin abuse
The most sought-after drug, without question, is OxyContin, Bodzak said. One 80-milligram pill of the potent and highly addictive painkiller can sell for $80, he said.
"Abuse of this drug has created tremendous problems with society, serious health problems and death. It's a DEA priority," Bodzak said. "It's beneficial if taken as prescribed. It has a plastic coating which acts as time release, but abusers will chew it, some crush and snort it, others dissolve it in water and inject it."
OxyContin, as a prescribed drug, is of pure quality, compared with street drugs such as cocaine, which are cut and only 20 percent to 30 percent pure, Bodzak said.
Bodzak said a case in Jefferson County resulted in the conviction last month of Dr. Paramjit Singh, who wrote prescriptions for OxyContin to 10 trusted patients. The patients would have the prescriptions filled at a variety of pharmacies (paid for by insurance or Medicaid) and then turn the pills over to a truck stop owner.
The truck stop owner paid the "patients" a few hundred dollars for the pills and then turned around and sold them for a huge profit, which he split with Dr. Singh, Bodzak said. The truck stop owner and the patients are facing charges, he said.
The local connection? Dr. Singh's office partner, who used to come into Boardman to fill prescriptions, was investigated, Bodzak said.