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Guard held on drug counts
Once in custody, the defendant admitted what he’d done, the FBI said.
YOUNGSTOWN — Ivey J. Maybou figured that, even though he was a Mahoning County jail guard, he could make enough to pay off debts by selling cocaine to an inmate, the government said.
Maybou was fired immediately as a Mahoning County deputy sheriff cadet after his arrest on a federal charge of possession with intent to deliver cocaine, Sheriff Randall A. Wellington said Monday.
Maybou, 39, of Crosby Street S.E., Warren, was arrested at 7:15 p.m. Saturday at the McDonald’s restaurant on Fifth Avenue by FBI agents, deputy sheriffs and Youngstown State University campus police. He made his initial appearance in Youngstown federal court Monday, was declared indigent, received a court-appointed attorney, and was released on $20,000 unsecured bond by Magistrate Judge George J. Limbert.
Wellington said Maybou, who was hired last July and still on probationary status, had intended to bring drugs into the jail on Fifth Avenue where he worked as a corrections officer. Employees can be fired for any reason within their one-year probationary period.
In a seven-page affidavit filed Monday, FBI Special Agent Thomas A. Donnelly, assigned to the bureau’s Boardman office, laid out the sequence of events:
On April 10, Donnelly received a call from a jail inmate. The inmate used Maybou’s cell phone to call the FBI. The inmate said Maybou had, within the past two weeks, brought chewing tobacco and $100 worth of powdered cocaine into the jail for him.
The inmate said Maybou, who had gambling debts to pay off by April 12, offered to bring in drugs for $2,000. The inmate requested a phone number from Donnelly to give to Maybou so the corrections officer would think he was calling the inmate’s drug “supplier.” The inmate gave Maybou the cell phone number of an undercover agent supplied by the FBI.
On April 11, the inmate spoke to FBI Special Agent Peter D. Proch and said Maybou would be calling the undercover agent’s cell phone between 5:30 and 7 p.m. Maybou called three times between 6 and 7:30 p.m. and left voice mail messages.
On the first message, Maybou said: “I’m a friend of Dave’s and wanted to see if I could meet with you ... to pick up that package. I’ll call you again. I’d like to meet with you at the McDonald’s on 5th Avenue across from YSU. I’ll give you a call back when I get off work. Thank you.”
On the second message, Maybou left his own cell phone number and said: “I need to get with you so I can pick up that package” and also said he had “a great need to pick up that package so I can take care of things. Give me a call.”
On the third voice mail, Maybou again left his cell number and said: “It is of the utmost importance that I get with you tonight. Thank you.”
Donnelly then met with the undercover agent and monitored two calls placed to Maybou between 10:12 and 10:40 p.m. on April 11. Maybou did not answer either call. The undercover agent left a voice mail during the first call, saying he was returning Maybou’s calls but left no message on the second call.
At 7:30 a.m. on April 12, Maybou left a voice mail for the undercover agent. They later spoke and arranged to meet at the McDonald’s at 7 that evening, where Maybou would receive the “packages.” Maybou said he’d be driving a green Mercury Cougar.
At 7:05 p.m., Maybou arrived and got into the undercover agent’s vehicle. The two discussed the cocaine, with Maybou saying he didn’t want the inmate selling it but just using it himself, the affidavit said.
Maybou said “I’m hurtin’, I got the friend of a friend said he’d wait until tomorrow morning” due to a bet he lost on a basketball game and added he had to get his “end of that taken care of before it gets any bigger.”
Maybou accepted $2,000 and an ounce of cocaine and declined when asked if he wanted to count the cash. When asked if he was cool getting the drugs into the jail, the corrections officer answered: “That ain’t, that ain’t no problem.”
For future transactions, Maybou told the undercover agent to call his cell phone. “I’m new ... but I’m ...willing to play” and “Hell, yeah, I gotta put the kids through college, right?”
The agent said they’d do business again the next week. Maybou said “Absolutely, gotta make a buck.”
Once he was out of the agent’s vehicle, the arrest team moved in and seized the cash, cocaine and a semiautomatic pistol Maybou was carrying.
Once Maybou was advised of his rights, he admitted that he agreed to bring drugs into the jail in exchange for $2,000, according to the affidavit. He said he didn’t have sports gambling debts but does have a lot of unpaid bills.