Feds file complaint after traffic stop

By Joe Gorman

jgorman@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

A detention hearing is set for today in federal court for a Boardman man who authorities said had “hundreds” of pills in his car during a traffic stop earlier this month.

U.S. Magistrate Judge George Limbert will oversee the hearing at 10:30 a.m. at the Thomas D. Lambros Federal Building on Market Street for Benjamin Ross, 27, who was charged May 16 after a traffic stop in the 4000 block of Southern Boulevard by the Ohio State Highway Patrol.

Ross is charged with knowingly and intentionally possessing with the intent to distribute a controlled substance. He is currently in federal custody awaiting his detention hearing.

An affidavit filed in support of his arrest said that the BMW Ross was driving was pulled over about 4:20 p.m. May 15 for a traffic violation. The affidavit said Ross appeared to be very nervous but consented to a pat-down search, where nothing was found.

However, a state patrol police dog, “Rexey,” detected the smell of narcotics in the car after doing a sniff of the air around the car. Troopers searched the car and found a box for a toy. Inside the box they found 4.25 ounces of pills.

The affidavit described them as “hundreds of pills,” with markings that designated them as opiate-based painkillers, the affidavit said.

The pills were also in a vacuum-sealed plastic bag, which is a common way for drug traffickers to package drugs, the affidavit said.

Troopers also confiscated two cellphones Ross had with him, the affidavit said.