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Drug investigation solved, 4
arrested
3/06/04
By KEITH ARNOLD Tribune Chronicle
WARREN - Law enforcement played the middle man in a six-week-long drug
investigation that has resulted in the
arrest of four men in Lordstown Thursday.
Members of TAG Law Enforcement Task Force transported five bales of
marijuana from Tuscon, Ariz., to Ohio in an effort to break up the chain of
supply and demand, Sheriff Thomas L. Altiere said Friday.
During the raid, members of the three-county task force arrested Terrance A.
Blackshere, 25, 6278 Tod Ave., Lordstown, on a charge of aggravated drug
trafficking, a first-degree felony. Adam J. Gumont, 27, and Joseph E. Pirtz,
29, were arrested on similar charges.
The fourth man - Mitchell R. Horvat, 23 - was arrested on a charge of drug
trafficking, a fourth-degree felony.
Police did not release addresses for Gumont, Pirtz or Horvat. The search of
Blackshere's home uncovered several industrial scales used for weighing the
large bales of pot, drug paraphernalia and about $42,000 in cash. Each of
the men is expected to be arraigned in Newton Falls Municipal Court Monday
morning, a court official said Friday afternoon.
Altiere had limited details about the bust as a result of an ongoing
investigation. The task force is working with investigators in Tuscon,
Ariz., who are expected to arrest individuals involved in the chain there.
Altiere was joined by Geauga County Sheriff Daniel McClelland at a news
conference Friday in Altiere's office.
''We've made a significant dent in marijuana trafficking in the three-county
area,'' McClelland said.
The sheriff's offices in Trumbull, Ashtabula and Geauga counties make up the
task force, which is funded by the Byrne Memorial Grant through the Ohio
Office of Criminal Justice Services.
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