Official: 3rd raid signifies increase

The prosecutor said drug buys are made on Salem streets in broad daylight.
By D.A. WILKINSON
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
SALEM -- The Columbiana County prosecutor said a third drug raid in the city since the spring is more evidence that there is an increase in drug trafficking in the county.
The Columbiana County Drug Task Force raided a house on State Street on May 11, another on Pershing Street on Oct. 13, and the most recent at about 9:30 a.m. Thursday on Washington Street.
Prosecutor Robert Herron said Friday, "The reason you are seeing [the raids] now is because of the tremendous growth in drug trafficking."
Herron, who works closely with the task force, said, "We have made buys on the streets of Salem -- in broad daylight."
The two most recent raids bring the task force's seizure of suspected crack cocaine to about 1,041 grams (2.28 pounds) countywide so far this year. That equals 84 percent of all the suspected crack that was seized in the county from 1992, when the task force was started, through 2004.
The prosecutor has been trying to send a wake-up call to the community that the growing problem is not going to go away.
Herron said, "Do I anticipate an increasing level of drug trafficking on the streets? The answer is obvious: Yes."
Although no heroin was found in Thursday's raid, heroin seizures countywide for 2005 are up 660 percent more than the amount seized from 1992-2004 by the task force.
Authorities' observations
Thursday's raid was at a house relatively close to one raided earlier. Herron said that isn't a coincidence.
"Our investigation shows that a considerable amount of drugs are flowing into the neighborhood," the prosecutor said.
Authorities believe the suspected cocaine seized Thursday came from Youngstown drug dealers.
Herron hopes the raids also sends this message to Youngstown dealers -- Don't come down here and sell.
Authorities also believe that factions from Michigan and New Jersey want to sell illegal drugs in the county.
The prosecutor expects that charges will be filed in the Washington Street raid after the suspected drugs seized this week are formally tested in a laboratory.
Four people were charged with drug and nondrug offenses after the raid at the Pershing Street house. Information on arrests after the May raid was not immediately available.
But Herron has warned that the increase in drug use will also lead to more small crimes. Two people arrested at Pershing Street also face shoplifting charges for apparently taking items from a Salem store, he added.
wilkinson@vindy.com