(File Photo of a Gavel)
Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News
(Cleveland, OH) Fifteen people are now facing federal charges after prosecutors confirm that they ran a large-scale drug ring that distributed over 100 pounds of methamphetamine in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
According to a statement in a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio, the group obtained meth from drug suppliers in Akron, Ohio, and the U.S.-Mexico border before it was sold to people in Pennsylvania, Ohio and other places in the surrounding region.
The news release also noted that four homes in Akron were used as stash houses to distribute, process and store the meth.
Investigation from law enforcment was a yearlong effort from federal and local agencies and it found drug transactions totaling over 100 pounds of meth.
Investigators seized approximately 15 pounds of meth as well as a firearm as part of the investigation, and authorities confirm that the 15 people were taken into custody between April and May in a series of coordinated arrests.
The defendants charged have an age range from 27 to 62 years old and these people received a charge of conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine:
- Ricardo Allison
- Sheldon Bell
- Earl Breckenridge
- Craig Consilio
- Clarence Daniels
- Bryce Dittman
- Larry Finch
- Nicholas Helfrick
- John Koza
- Samantha Lentz
- Marcus Nixon
- Anthony Raunikar
- Tyler Smith
- Jazzmin Thomas
- John Townsend