Two sentence in East Side heroin case

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Two men who federal prosecutors say were part of a ring distributing heroin from a base on the East Side were sentenced this week in the U.S. Northern District Court of Ohio.

Jean Carlos Martinez, 32, of Campbell, was sentenced to 108 months in federal prison and Carlos Garay Cruz, 40, of Youngstown, was sentenced to 84 months in federal prison.

The two were among 18 people indicted by federal prosecutors and an additional 37 who were indicted by a Mahoning County grand jury for their role in a heroin ring. Those who were indicted in state court were users of the heroin, while those who were indicted by federal authorities were targeted for their roles in supplying the drugs to be sold.

Federal prosecutors said Martinez supplied heroin to eight people in the Youngstown area who in turn sold it.

Both men pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to distribute heroin and distributing heroin.

Customers from all over the Mahoning Valley as well as Western Pennsylvania were using the heroin, which was supplied from New York City, according to federal prosecutors, from January 2012 to Nov. 30, 2014. An investigation into the ring began in September 2013.