DRUG INVESTIGATION Cops raid motel, charge 2 men with trafficking

The inn has been a 'problem location,' a police captain says.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
LIBERTY -- Two men were arrested on felony crack cocaine trafficking charges as a team of more than 40 law enforcement officers raided two rooms at the American Inn motel here.
Charged were Toris Garner, 28, who works as a painter and gave police a Bennington Avenue, Youngstown, address, and Derek S. Sharpe, 26, who told police his address was on Fairgreen Avenue, also in Youngstown. Sharpe, who works part time at a carwash, had $777 in his pocket when arrested, police said Thursday. Both were taken to Trumbull County jail pending their initial court appearances.
The investigation, which began a year ago by Liberty and Girard police detectives, was revived by additional tips and sources about three months ago, said Sgt. Bob Magnuson, commander of the Mahoning Valley Law Enforcement Task Force.
Undercover police had visited the motel at 1600 Motor Inn Drive weekly for the past three months to conduct surveillance and make crack cocaine and other drug buys, he said. Police regularly found Garner and Sharpe at the inn during the past three months, Magnuson said.
Using search warrants, police simultaneously entered the motel rooms occupied by Garner and Sharpe, where officers said they seized suspected crack cocaine, marijuana, drug paraphernalia and $3,340 in cash. Police also received consent to search several other rooms at the inn, Magnuson said.
Effort to close
Capt. Kenneth Feigert of the Liberty Police Department said his department has discussed with the Trumbull County prosecutor's office the possibility of having the inn shut down as a public nuisance.
"This has been going on for approximately a year, and this has been a problem location for us. We've had many, many calls here," he said. Police believe nearby car break-ins and car thefts and vending machine break-ins were performed by people needing money to buy drugs at the inn, he said.
Feigert said the inn, located near the Interstate 80 and Belmont Avenue interchange, had operated under the names of Motel 6, Knights Inn and the American Inn, all within the past four years.
He said most rooms there were rented by the week or by the month for about $60 a week.
Just before the raid at the inn, a Liberty police officer stopped and recovered a car with two occupants at the Speedway gas station on Belmont Avenue that had been stolen from Beaver Falls, Pa., and had just left the American Inn, where the occupants were staying, Feigert said. Its driver, Billie Gray, 37, who police said was a regular at the inn with a room key, was arrested on a charge of receiving stolen property.
Related raid
After raiding the motel, the task force moved on to what Magnuson said was a related raid at the three-story Fairgreen Avenue house on Youngstown's North Side, where police also executed a search warrant.
Magnuson said undercover agents sometimes found the quantities of drugs they sought weren't available at the inn, but someone would go to a Youngstown drug house to procure the drugs and bring them to the inn so a sale could be completed. "Whatever we wanted to buy, product or quantity, they could get that," he said.
The motel residents got drugs from Youngstown dealers and distributed them in Liberty and surrounding suburbs, police said.
Agencies participating in the raids included the task force's drug and tactical squads, the U.S. Marshal's Service, the FBI, Youngstown and Liberty police, the Mahoning County Sheriff's Department, and the Ohio Adult Parole Authority.
"Hopefully, we're making a point and putting people on notice that it's not going to be tolerated," Feigert said. "It may look like we're not paying attention, but we are," he added.