CRIME Man, 51, gets 4-year prison term for helping son's drug operation

YOUNGSTOWN -- A Struthers man is on his way to prison for four years for helping his son run a cocaine operation.
Judge Jack Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court sentenced Larry Gentile, 51, of Clingan Road, on Monday to a four-year term on a charge of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity and four years for attempting to fund a drug transaction. The judge ruled the terms to be served at the same time.
Authorities said Gentile was part of a ring that provided cocaine to people in Poland, Struthers, Boardman and Youngstown.
Gentile's son, Christopher, 31, was believed to be the leader of the operation. He is serving a 10-year sentence after pleading guilty to drug charges in December 2002.
The Mahoning Valley Drug Task Force investigated the case. The prosecutor was Terry Grenga.
Task force officials said Larry Gentile built a secret room in the basement of his house that was used as a distribution and packaging hub for the operation.
Christopher Gentile would typically receive a shipment of cocaine from a supplier and take it to his father's house. In the secret room, the cocaine was "cut," or mixed with other white, powdery substances to double its original weight, task force officials said.
The diluted cocaine then was repackaged and compressed to make it appear that it was in its original packaging.
Christopher Gentile paid his father every month for allowing the drug operation to be run out of the house, the task force said.