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Feds indict six in heroin ring
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Telephone transcripts included in a federal indictment against six people on charges of selling heroin in the city detail employment advice and some paranoia.
The U.S. Northern District Court of Ohio unsealed an indictment filed last week against Vincent D. Moorer, 31, and Melvin E. Johnson, 30, and four others, charging them with distributing heroin in Youngstown between January 2013 and last month.
This indictment is separate from another indictment unsealed this week indicting 18 people federally who prosecutors say were part of a ring distributing heroin from New York City in Youngstown.
An additional 37 people were secretly indicted in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on state charges related to that ring. Some of them are expected to be arraigned today.
Bob Bolzano, who is in charge of the Youngstown DEA office, said the two cases pinpoint that heroin is a serious problem in the Youngstown area. He said the FBI, DEA and other local and state agencies are focusing as much of their energies as they can on stopping or staunching the flow of heroin.
“It’s a fairly significant problem,” Bolzano said.
Moorer’s indictment charges him with supplying heroin to Johnson, who in turn supplied it to others to sell in the Youngstown area.
Federal agents used taped telephone conversations to help build their case and included some of them in the indictment, offering a rare glimpse into the workings of people in the ring.
Those indicted are Moorer, of Lithonia, Ga.; Johnson, of Youngstown; Charity A. Cousin, 29, of Warren; Keyonia M. Moorer, 35, of Akron; Jabbar D. Spires, 34, of Youngstown; and John Angelo Smith, 37, of Youngstown. Moorer was arraigned and pleaded not guilty. He is in the custody of U.S. Marshals.
In one of the calls, Moorer is talking to a man described as “UM,” or unknown male, who gives Moorer advice on who to promote. He told Moorer he should give people in his family the best spots because he should keep family first. At one point, Moorer also said that he did not get into the drug business for the fame, but he did not say why he did. However, he mentioned houses and cars he wanted with the money he was making.
The calls also capture Moorer worried when his juvenile niece and her mother — Moorer’s sister — were pulled over by police with a load of heroin valued at about $40,000 the juvenile had hidden in a feminine hygiene product on a Greyhound bus from Georgia to somewhere in the Northern District. The indictment does not specify where.
Moorer’s sister told him the police pulled her over after she left the bus station, and took the heroin but did not take anyone to jail. Moorer and an unknown male — it is not known if it is the same unknown male — speculate that the sister was setting Moorer up and may have taken the heroin for herself.
On the transcripts, Moorer confronts his sister, and she denies any wrongdoing. Moorer says the scenario does not add up and also adds that people are pressuring him about the missing drugs.
Moorer and others in the transcripts also downplay complaints about drug quality from customers.
Bolzano said Moorer’s ring was “pretty good size,” and they were bringing heroin to the area from Georgia. He said more indictments are expected in that case, as well as the previous one, in the upcoming weeks.