Fed drug indictment against 3 from Mahoning Valley

Staff report

CLEVELAND

A federal grand jury has returned a 29-count indictment charging four people – three from the Mahoning Valley – with drug trafficking, said Carole S. Rendon, acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.

According to the indictment, Andre L. Duncan, 37, of Brent, Ala.; Morris D. Perry, 37, and Shon D. Rankin, 36, both of Youngstown; and Phillip T. Devine, 26, of Leetonia, knowingly conspired to possess with the intent to distribute and to distribute heroin between May and August 2014.

Duncan supplied heroin to Rankin and Perry for distribution in the Youngstown area, and Perry supplied heroin to Devine for distribution in the Youngstown area, according to the indictment.

It was part of the purported conspiracy that cellphones, code words and phrases were used by the co-conspirators to facilitate their drug trafficking.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and is being prosecuted by David M. Toepfer, a Youngstown-based assistant U.S. attorney.