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Campbell cops seize guns, drugs in raid
CAMPBELL
Campbell police displayed nearly 30 guns and a collection of drugs and drug paraphernalia seized in a pair of raids Tuesday morning.
A raid at a house on Chapel Lane resulted in the seizure of 27 long-guns and two handguns. Police seized crack cocaine, marijuana, a number of pills and various items for the use and distribution of drugs during a separate raid at a home on Monroe Street.
The individual targeted in the Monroe Street raid was charged with possession of drugs and paraphernalia. Charges have not yet been brought against the individual targeted in the Chapel Lane raid.
The raids are the culmination of the police department’s newly formed street-crime unit under Chief Patrick Kelly.
Kelly said he anticipates the raids are the first of many.
The police department has two officers working a street-crimes beat three days a week but Kelly said anyone from the department can be used to perform the investigations.
Kelly formerly ran a street-crimes unit during his tenure as an officer at the Youngstown Police Department, and made establishing a similar group at the Campbell department a priority after his hiring.
Lt. Kevin Sferra gave a rough estimate that the confiscated firearms are worth between $7,000 to $10,000.
“We’ll try to get a confiscation order so we can take possession of the guns, and then we’ll sell them to dealers,” Kelly said. “The money we get for the weapons will then go in to our law-enforcement fund.”
The law-enforcement fund – or LET fund – finances equipment purchases and training for Campbell police.
The drugs will be destroyed.
U.S. Marshals and the Mahoning County Violent Crimes Task Force assisted during the raids.