Feds seek over $40K in drug case

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Federal prosecutors Wednesday filed a civil action in U.S. Northern District Court of Ohio to seize more than $40,000 in cash and a gun found during a search in November.

The money and gun, a .22-caliber semiautomatic pistol, were found when federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents Nov. 29 searched a 1550 Ferndale Ave. SW home in Warren.

The warrant was served after a confidential source bought an ounce of crack cocaine and 5 grams of heroin from a man at the home who has not yet been charged.

After the buy, agents pulled over a rental vehicle the man was driving, the complaint said. They found $1,077 cash on him plus an additional $300 that was used by the source to buy the drugs.

At the house, agents found $39,565 cash, the complaint said. The complaints said $30,192 was found underneath a bed, $8,399 was found in a closet and $974 was found in a dresser in the basement.

Besides the money and the gun, agents also found about a pound of suspected crack cocaine, more than a pound of grams of suspected cocaine, 1.1 pounds of suspected heroin and less than a pound of suspected marijuana, the complaint said.

Prosecutors said the money was received through the illegal sale of drugs and the gun was used to help those sales, so they should be forfeited to the U.S. government. The case has been assigned to Judge Benita Person of U.S. District Court in Youngstown.