43
Heroin pipeline shut down
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Police were serving search and arrest warrants Wednesday after a federal grand jury indicted 18 people on drug-trafficking charges, and 37 people were indicted secretly by a Mahoning County grand jury on drug-related charges.
At a news conference in Youngstown Council chambers, county Prosecutor Paul Gains said those indicted on federal charges were responsible for selling heroin while those indicted in common pleas court are mostly those who use the drug.
Gains said those who are doing the selling will be handled by the federal system, which metes out harsher sentences. It is hoped that those in the common-pleas system will be able to avail themselves of treatment programs to beat their addictions and decrease the demand for the drug, he noted.
“The goal here is to identify the sellers who were really profiting off the users,” Gains said.
A 119-count indictment unsealed Wednesday in the U.S. Northern District Court of Ohio accuses members of the ring of selling heroin and using telephones to help them sell drugs.
According to the indictment, the ring was distributing heroin from January 2012 to Nov. 30 of this year.
Documents state that Jean Carlos Martinez, 31, of Campbell, supplied heroin to eight people to sell in Youngstown. One of those eight people, Alberto Antonio Daya Delgado, 28, of Youngstown, in turn supplied heroin to one person to distribute in New Castle, Pa., and two other people to distribute in Youngstown.
The indictment documents a series of phone calls between members of the ring setting up drug buys and sales, and also documents purchases of heroin made by undercover officers and confidential sources between Sept. 30, 2013, and Oct. 30 of this year.
FBI Special Agent Todd Werth said the ring was bringing in heroin from New York City.
Brian Simmons, a Youngstown police officer who was one of the lead investigators on the case, said the ring was based primarily on the East Side, and the customers were from around the Mahoning Valley and Western Pennsylvania.
The Mahoning Valley Law Enforcement Task Force was the lead investigative agency.
Also taking part in the investigation was the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. marshals, the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office, city police and the county prosecutor’s office.
Werth said six teams were out serving warrants Wednesday and served three search warrants.
At one of the places they served the warrants they did find an assault rifle, Werth said.
Jeff Solic, head of the MVLETF, said that though the ring was not an overtly violent one, its reach was far because of the crimes the people who were buying heroin were committing to get the money.
He said some of those people spend between $100 and $200 a day for heroin.
“Far more people are endangered by this heroin than would be shot or assaulted by these folks,” Solic said.
Simmons said the ring was “decent size” and was typical, where one person would be the main supplier of drugs and would give it to others to sell.
He said the investigation began in September 2013.
As of late Wednesday afternoon, 12 of the people indicted on federal charges were in custody, as were 12 of those indicted in common pleas court.