Cops find gun, drugs, more than $2,200 cash in two separate incidents

February 5, 2016 at 12:00a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Police found almost $2,500 in cash and a loaded handgun Wednesday in two separate drug cases.

The cash seized gives police $5,480 seized this week in drug cases.

One of the men arrested, Jerrell Shorter, 19, of Youngstown, was taken into custody during a traffic stop and found with suspected heroin and suspected cocaine when he was being booked into the Mahoning County jail, which brought about a charge of illegal conveyance of drugs into a detention facility.

In December, he was charged with the same offense when he was taken to the jail after another traffic stop by the Ohio State Highway Patrol and heroin was found when he was booked. That case was just bound over from municipal court to a Mahoning County grand jury.

The gun seized by vice squad officers serving a search warrant at an 861 Parkview Ave. home is the 23rd firearm taken so far this year by city police.

Officers served the warrant investigating drug activity about 6 p.m. Besides the loaded .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun and extended clip, police also found $765 in cash, 12 bags of suspected marijuana, a bag of suspected crack cocaine, a bag of suspected heroin, three bottles of pills, including one bottle of oxycodone, and two suboxone strips.

Arrested on a charge of trafficking in marijuana was Michael Hackett, 29, of Parkview Avenue. Arrested on a charge of possession of drugs was Dwayne Gray, 32, of Holly Street. They are expected to be arraigned in municipal court today.

Issued citations for drug offenses were Kevin Rogers, 34, of St. Louis Avenue and Vincent Tarver, 32, of Oxford Avenue. They were released on summonses.

Shorter was taken into custody about 6:30 p.m. at Oak Hill and West Glenaven avenues after he was pulled over by patrol officers Anthony Trimble and James Cline for an improper turn. Reports said when the officers went to talk to Shorter, they could smell a strong odor of marijuana inside the car. Police also could see a marijuana cigarette in a cup holder and a bag of marijuana in the center of the car.

When Shorter said he had no driver’s license, he was taken out of the car to be placed into custody. Police found $1,732 when they searched him. As they did, he kept grabbing the front of his pants and he asked officers several times if they could let him go instead of taking him to jail, questions he repeated in their cruiser on the way to the jail.

Reports said the officers asked Shorter several times if he had any drugs on him as they were going to the jail, and he told them no. At the jail, he was taken into a changing room by corrections officers, where a pair of spandex pants was found underneath his jeans. Inside the spandex pants was a large bag that had a smaller bag of suspected heroin, suspected crack cocaine and three pills, reports said. Shorter faces charges of possession of heroin, possession of cocaine, possession of drugs, possession of marijuana, driving without a license and the illegal conveyance charge.

He also is expected to be arraigned in municipal court today.