Ohio drug defendant pleads, drops youth defense

COLUMBUS (AP) — An Ohio drug defendant has pleaded guilty in a deal that required him to drop his longtime defense he couldn’t be charged with drug trafficking because he was a juvenile when he was arrested.

Rigoberto Gomez-Gomez still wouldn’t say exactly how old he is, but told federal judge Gregory Frost he was older than 18 when the crime was committed.

The Columbus Dispatch reports that Gomez-Gomez pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and one count of operating a continuing criminal enterprise in exchange for the government dropping a dozen other charges.

The newspaper says Gomez-Gomez supplied marijuana to a Columbus tattoo-shop owner whose tattoos-for-memorabilia deal with some Ohio State football players launched a scandal that led to a far-reaching NCAA investigation.