Search leads to 1 arrest
Police said they seized guns, ammunition and suspected drugs.
YOUNGSTOWN -- A man first known to police only as Little Ricky was arrested during a search on the East Side for four guns stolen from a Poland Township home.
Members of the Mahoning Valley Law Enforcement Task Force descended on 333 Forest Ave. just before 5 p.m. Tuesday with a search warrant signed by Judge Maureen A. Cronin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. The warrant was based on undercover buys of heroin at the address, said Youngstown Patrolman Robert Patton, a task force member.
Police reports
Patton said Poland Patrolman Greg Wilson, another task force member, and Poland Detective Jerry Velasquez had obtained information that the guns stolen from their jurisdiction were taken to the house on Forest and traded for heroin. Through a source, Wilson and Velasquez learned that the guns had been given to Rick Armstrong, 27, of Market Street, who hangs out at the Forest Avenue house, Patton said. He didn't say Armstrong, also known as Little Ricky, would have known the guns had been stolen.
Patton said Armstrong was turned over to Campbell police Tuesday on an outstanding warrant that charges him with carrying a concealed weapon. Charges against him in Youngstown -- based on the raid -- will be discussed with a prosecutor and may be pursued at the federal level.
Patton said the task force seized a 20-gauge shotgun, .40-caliber handgun, ammunition, scale, magazines for high-powered rifles, suspected marijuana and suspected crack cocaine at the house on Forest. He said the guns were not those taken from the house in Poland.