Task force official: Arrests being made in retail theft rings

The grand jury indicted 38 people and 14 retail businesses last week.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A multijurisdictional task force established to dismantle retail theft rings has started rounding up suspects.
Starting late Wednesday morning, the task force began arresting those indicted and charged with being part of a ring, Cathy Collins-Taylor, task force spokeswoman, said Wednesday.
Last week, a Mahoning County grand jury indicted 38 people and 14 retail businesses on a variety of charges including engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, money laundering, criminal simulation and receiving stolen property.
Mahoning County Prosecutor Paul Gains said most of the thefts consisted of baby formula and tobacco products. Those items, which have a high retail resale value, have been stolen from large stores and warehouses for resale, officials said after raids last month.
Last month, agents seized hundreds of dollars' worth of stolen merchandise from 14 convenient stores, the Ohio attorney general's office has said.
Gains said that conviction on a charge of racketeer influenced and corrupt organizations or conspiracy to RICO carries a penalty of three to 10 years in prison. Money laundering is punishable by one to five years behind bars, and convictions for receiving stolen property and criminal simulation carry a penalty of six to 12 months incarceration.
Groups involved
The investigation, which is ongoing, involves cooperation among several entities.
Gerry Mroczkowski, a BCII special agent, pointed specifically to Boardman Police Sgt. Rick Balog, Detective Gary Snyder of the Mahoning County Sheriff's office and an agent with the department of public safety whom he didn't identify.
"They spearheaded this and they should be given a lot of the credit," he said.
The task force formed in February 2005 with the Ohio Attorney General's Organized Crime Investigation Commission and Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation, Mahoning County Sheriff's Department and Ohio Department of Public Safety's Ohio Investigative Unit.
It was formed to combat organized retail theft and food stamp trafficking, she said at a press conference Wednesday.