Youngstown police round up suspects in drug ring

By Joe Gorman

jgorman@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Police rounded up several members of a suspected drug ring secretly indicted last week on drug trafficking and state corrupt-activity charges.

Members of the FBI’s Violent Crime Task Force, as well as the Mahoning Valley Law Enforcement Task Force, Mahoning Valley Crisis Response Team, the city police department and the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office concentrated early Tuesday on streets around Springdale Avenue, off Albert Street on the East Side.

Todd Werth of the Youngstown FBI office said six of the nine people authorities were looking for were captured by early Tuesday afternoon. Another person surrendered at the city police station after learning his home was visited by police early in the morning looking for him.

Those being sought Tuesday were indicted last week by a Mahoning County grand jury on charges ranging from engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity to trafficking in drugs.

Werth deferred comment to county authorities on the specifics of the indictments.

Typically, secret indictments are unsealed and the person’s identity is known when they are arrested, but the indictment in this case was not available Tuesday.

The indictment had not yet been unsealed because the warrants issued in the case had not yet been returned to the county clerk of courts office.

Assistant Prosecutor Ken Cardinal, the lead prosecutor on the case, said the indictments came at the end of an investigation that took at least a year. He said the investigation was focused on drug activity in the specific neighborhood where the warrants were served.

Werth said authorities serving the warrants found suspected marijuana, suspected crack cocaine and eight guns.

Of the eight guns, four were handguns, three were assault rifles and one was a shotgun. A drum magazine containing a large amount of ammunition was also seized, Werth said.

Werth said he was especially pleased authorities were able to get the guns off the street.

“It’s good to get those weapons,” Werth said. “That was probably one of the biggest things we did.”