7 indicted in trafficking probe

Law officers saw that they were dealing with branches of a drug network.
By TIM YOVICH
Vindicator Trumbull Staff
WARREN -- Seven people suspected of being Trumbull County drug dealers, including three members of a Champion family, have been indicted in what law enforcement has dubbed "Operation Green Tree."
The seven pleaded innocent Thursday before Judge W. Wyatt McKay in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.
A spokesman for the TAG Law Enforcement Task Force obtained the secret indictment against the seven after a one-year investigation, partly putting a drug distribution network out of business.
The charges range from being involved in organized crime under state law to possession of marijuana.
TAG is a multicounty major crimes unit that focuses investigations on drug trafficking, firearms trafficking, gangs and homeland security.
Origin of name
The cases became known as "Operation Green Tree" when, during the probe, the task force members determined they were interrupting small criminal groups, or branches, with multiple ties to one family, the spokesman said.
Police identified the family as the Boones -- a mother, son and daughters.
Eight locations were searched in Champion, Warren, Niles and Cortland. During the execution of the search warrants, police seized more than $44,000 in cash, four vehicles, three residential properties, a boat, an all-terrain vehicle, four motorcycles, numerous digital scales and drug paraphernalia.
Drugs seized include six pounds of marijuana, nearly a half-pound of cocaine, an ounce of psilocybin mushrooms and prescription drugs.
The operation began with Champion police, the spokesman said, when they began receiving anonymous tips about drug trafficking.
The tips, he explained, were shared with Cortland, Niles and Warren police, Ohio State Highway Patrol, U.S. Treasury Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation and the U.S. Marshals Service.
An unspecified number of other people have been charged and arrested as part of the network.
Some of those charged were caught with firearms; others had property seized.
Who was arrested
Those arraigned, their bonds and the charges against them are:
USharon Boone, 45, of Pierce Road, Champion: $20,000, engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, permitting drug abuse, possession of marijuana with a gun specification and two counts of complicity to trafficking in marijuana with a gun specification.
ULisa Boone, 28, Shafer Road, Champion, daughter of Sharon Boone: $5,000, trafficking in cocaine with forfeiture of a vehicle and trafficking in marijuana with forfeiture of a vehicle.
URobert Boone, 25, who lives with his mother, Sharon Boon, on Pierce: $50,000, three counts of trafficking in marijuana with two firearms specifications and a vehicle forfeiture, possession of marijuana, two counts of conspiracy to traffic in marijuana and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity. The judge was told that he first fled police when they tried to arrest him but later surrendered.
U Jason Washington, 30, Terra Alta Street, Warren: $25,000, two counts of possession of drugs with a gun specification, trafficking in marijuana with a gun specification, possession of marijuana with a gun specification, possession of drugs, tampering with evidence and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity.
UChristopher Jibotian, 19, North Park Avenue Extension, Bristol: $5,000, two counts of complicity to trafficking in marijuana and trafficking in marijuana with a gun specification.
URobert Zadai, 25, Shafer Road, Champion, same address as Lisa Boone: $15,000, two counts of trafficking in marijuana with forfeiture and one count of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity.
U James Albaugh, 28, Mason Street, Warren: $25,000, two counts of trafficking in marijuana with a gun specification and forfeiture, possession of marijuana with forfeiture and gun specification and engaging in a pattern of drug activity.
yovich@vindy.com