Orders for burglars

By Tim Yovich

Customers requested item, suspects stole it, police say

A task force continues to investigate another cell of burglars, officials say.

WARREN — A burglary ring that operated in the Youngstown area was so sophisticated that a prospective buyer could order a specific type of item — and it would be stolen from a home.

The burglaries came to an end Thursday with 15 people being named in a 68-count indictment for racketeering, among other charges, and the recovery of more than $400,000 in stolen goods.

“You just ordered what you wanted, and it was stolen for you,” said James Ciotti, an agent with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation, who initiated the 14-month probe.

Authorities believed that some 125 break-ins have been solved.

The bust also averted a new scam. Among the stolen items recovered, and placed on display Friday in Warren, were police jackets taken from Red Diamond Uniforms in Austintown.

Warren police Detective Jeffrey Hoolihan said the burglars planned to pose as police who would raid drug houses and steal the money and drugs.

“They were going to do their own raids,” Hoolihan said.

During a news conference at a city-owned warehouse on Summit Street, Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann congratulated Canfield police Detective Andrew Bodzak for heading the investigation under the Ohio Organized Crime Investigative Commission.

Dann said Ciotti came to him before he took office in January 2007 to ask if the organized crime commission would get involved in investigating with a task force, because of the large number of burglaries.

It was important to form a multi-jurisdictional task force, Dann said, because one police agency doesn’t have the manpower and couldn’t afford such an investigation.

Warren Police Chief John Mandopoulos and Paul Gains, Mahoning County prosecutor, agreed that it took hard work, long hours and cooperation to bring the charges against ring members.

Gains said all owners of the stolen goods have been identified, except for the owner a horse trailer. The property will be returned to the owners or their insurance companies, if the insured have been reimbursed.

Among the businesses targeted were Wal-Mart in Boardman, Home Depot in Warren, and a host of area restaurants, car dealerships and other businesses.

From restaurants, the defendants would steal frozen food and sell it, primarily to a West Side bar, Gains said. The bar was formerly known as the Bonanza Bar and has since changed hands, Gains said. The man allegedly buying the food is no longer there, and any prosecution of him would be up to Ohio BCI.

Hoolihan said that three of the 15 indicted are employed at the General Motor’s Corp. complex in Lordstown – Albert Alli of Austintown, Mark Wells of North Jackson and Timothy Marino of Cortland.

“Some of the deals took place right under the big GM sign” at the plant, Hoolihan said, noting that some GM workers and others put in their orders in the GM parking lot.

In one case, a horse trailer was ordered and it turned up in Michigan, where a GM worker had it.

Alli was indicted along with his wife, Laura. He is the son of Al Alli, the late former president of United Auto Workers Local 1112 at the Lordstown complex, Hoolihan said.

Another man not indicted this week, but who was involved in the ring, Ciotti said, is Edward L. Rovnak of Berlin Center. He was indicted Aug. 23 on two counts of receiving stolen property and concealing the identification number of a vehicle. His trial is scheduled to begin Monday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

Hoolihan and Ciotti explained that the ring was also involved in break-ins in western Pennsylvania. These are being investigated by police there and the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office.

This is the third of four burglary “cells” that has been uncovered, but they are not related, police said.

The first ring, Hoolihan and Ciotti explained, dealt in the thefts of ATMs.

The second cell specialized in stealing gambling machines and break-ins of higher-end businesses – about 30 of them. Ciotti said nearly all of those involved in the first cells have been found guilty of various charges.

The third cell broken up this week, Hoolihan said, “took anything they could get their hands on.”

The task force is investigating a fourth cell, Ciotti explained, that is composed of expert burglars. He wouldn’t be more specific.

Two of the most active burglary suspects indicted Thursday were Bobby Joe Mock, 39, of Austintown, who is in the Mahoning County Jail, and Brian Bleggi, 41, of Austintown, Ciotti said.

Mock has been sentenced to one year in prison in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court and 31‚Ñ2 years in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on charges stemming from a nine-hour standoff with police in July at the Holiday Inn MetroPlex in Liberty. At the time, Mock blamed his drug addiction and being off his medications for his actions when police went to the motel to arrest him.

He pleaded guilty in Trumull Couny to vandalism and inciting to violence. In Mahoning County, he pleaded guilty to two counts of receiving stolen property and one count of breaking and entering.

yovich@vindy.com