Ex-jail guard indicted on federal drug charge

Once in custody, the defendant admitted what he’d done.

staff report

YOUNGSTOWN — A federal grand jury has indicted a former Mahoning County jail guard on drug charges.

Ivey J. Maybou, 39, of Crosby Street S.E., Warren, was fired immediately as a Mahoning County deputy sheriff cadet after his arrest in March on a federal charge of possession with intent to deliver cocaine. At his initial appearance in Youngstown federal court, he was declared indigent, received a court-appointed attorney, and was released on $20,000 unsecured bond.

The grand jury in Cleveland issued a two-count indictment late Tuesday. Maybou is charged with possession with intent to distribute cocaine and carrying a firearm during a drug trafficking crime.

Sheriff Randall A. Wellington has said that 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, FBI Special Agent Thomas A. Donnelly, assigned to the bureau’s Boardman office, laid out the sequence of events. An inmate who called the FBI and said Maybou offered to bring in drugs for $2,000 helped arrange the sting operation that resulted in Maybou’s arrest.

At 7:30 a.m. April 12, Maybou left a voice mail for an 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.

Maybou accepted $2,000 and an ounce of cocaine. Once 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. He said he had a lot of unpaid bills.