Nine people arraigned in Niles motel methamphetamine bust

Staff report

NILES

Nine people arrested Friday at the Cottage Inn motel on Youngstown Road in connection with a methamphetamine-manufacturing operation were arraigned Monday in Niles Municipal Court.

All but one was charged with illegal assembly or possession of chemicals for manufacture of drugs, a third-degree felony.

The man authorities identified as the main suspect in the operation, Larry E. Moran, 41, whose address was listed as the motel, was arraigned on the illegal-assembly charge, plus drug trafficking and possession of controlled substances, also felonies.

He pleaded guilty to two amphetamine-related charges in October in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court related to a methamphetamine lab in Lordstown raided in July 2013 and awaits sentencing.

Judge Thomas Townley set bond at $10,000 for Moran’s new charges. As with all of the defendants but one, Moran was not asked to enter a plea because the charges are felonies.

One defendant arrested in the case, William A. Harris, 39, of Miller Street Southwest in Warren, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor driving without an operator’s license and was fined $100.

These people also were arraigned in the case:

Bond of $5,000 was set for Justin E. Paul, 30, of Gilmer Road in Leavittsburg, charged with illegal assembly or possession. Bond of $5,000 also was set for Marshall Emerine, 35, of Smalley Road, Windham, on a charge of illegal assembly or possession.

Troy Dodrill, 29, of Glen Oaks Drive, Warren, posted his $7,500 bond Saturday to get out of the Trumbull County jail. He is charged with illegal assembly or possession and possessing controlled substances.

Bond of $5,000 was set for Desaray Harris, 18, of Hickory Lane Southwest in Warren, charged with illegal assembly or possession. Donald W. Brown, 40, of Summit Avenue, Niles, posted his $5,000 bond to get out of jail. He is charged with illegal assembly or possession.

Bond was set at $5,000 for Crissy L. Worthman, 23, of Raglan Drive in Howland and Dawn M. Pyatt, 29, of Emma Street in Niles.

The Trumbull Ashtabula Group Law Enforcement Task Force made the arrests while executing a search warrant Friday after a five-month investigation of the sale and manufacture of methamphetamine.

Investigators seized numerous items used in the manufacture of the drug. Many of the suspects arrested were responsible for providing pseudoephedrine, one of the main ingredients in methamphetamine.