Man pleads innocent in drug-trafficking case

Staff report

WARREN

Jimmy R. Stella Jr., 31, of Jackson Street Southwest, has pleaded innocent in Warren Municipal Court to a felony drug-trafficking charge, as well as misdemeanor drug-possession and speeding.

Stella was arrested at Highland Avenue and First Street by the Ohio State Highway Patrol on Sept. 30 as part of last year’s Violence Gun Reduction and Interdiction Program (VGRIP).

At the scene, officers found suspected crack cocaine and sent the substance to a lab for analysis. The lab results confirmed that it was cocaine, resulting in a warrant being issued for Stella’s arrest.

Members of the U.S. Marshal’s Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force located Stella on Wednesday at a residence on seventh Street in Warren Township and took him into custody.

Officers referred information they learned about the home to the Trumbull Ashtabula Group Law Enforcement Task Force, which obtained a search warrant and found five assault rifles, two handguns, ammunition, a bullet-proof vest, $2,000 in cash and suspected marijuana and cocaine.

Stella appeared in court Thursday and is being held in the Trumbull County jail without eligibility to make bond.