YPD Vice finds 10 guns in 2 weeks

January 20, 2016 at 12:02a.m.

Variety of weapons, drugs found during investigations

YOUNGSTOWN

Vice squad members have been able to combine quality and quantity so far this year.

That’s because through just two weeks, they have seized 10 guns – among them three assault rifles – while serving search warrants at homes and investigating drug activity.

However, Lt. Gerard Slattery, head of the vice squad, said the squad could go another two or three weeks without finding a gun in any of its investigations.

He said it is often luck that determines what is found during a particular investigation.

Slattery added one thing that is always sure is, wherever there are drugs, chances are there are firearms.

“Guns and drugs go hand in hand,” Slattery said.

On Jan. 6, vice officers found six guns – three apiece – at homes on Delaware and Pennsylvania avenues. Found were four semiautomatic handguns, a revolver and an AK-47 assault rifle with a 37 mm grenade launcher attached that can also be used to shoot .12-gauge shotgun shells.

At a home on Idora Avenue Jan. 13, officers found two assault rifles – an M-16 and a .45-caliber Highpoint – as well as two semiautomatic handguns.

Slattery said it is not uncommon to find assault weapons.

He said almost all of them are obtained illegally, either from gun shows where background checks are not conducted, or they are stolen.

Additionally, the people who are found with them are often barred from owning any type of firearm because of some type of previous conviction, Slattery said.

“Mainly all of them are illegally obtained,” Slattery said.

Overall, the department has seized at least 17 guns so far in 2016. Statistics provided by the department show that officers seized 191 guns in 2015, 56 of those by the vice squad; and 155 in 2014.

Police Chief Robin Lees said the number for guns seized in 2015 is probably higher because it does not take into account guns seized in the city by members of the Mahoning Valley Violent Crimes Task Force or Law Enforcement Task Force.

Lees said in the 1990s, when the city’s homicide rate was often more than 40 and sometimes 50 a year because of violence associated with the drug trade, “we were picking up assault rifles all the time.”

Now, Lees said, while assault rifles still are found, increasing is the quality and quantity of handguns, especially semiautomatic handguns.

Lees said the reason for that trend is because there is more money in the drug trade so most people involved in the selling of drugs are armed, and the weapons are also now more of a status symbol.

Lees said at one point, it was considered to be hip in the drug culture to have a “nine,” or 9 mm handgun.

Now, the hip gun in the drug culture is a .40 or .45-caliber semiautomatic.

“How frequently do you see a revolver anymore?” Lees asked.

Both Slattery and Lees, while saying luck often is involved when a big cache of guns or drugs is discovered, did acknowledge that 10 guns in two weeks is a good find.