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TAG BUST
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By LEEANN CARROLL
Staff Writer
lcarroll@starbeacon.com
NEW LYME — Nearly a thousand pounds of marijuana and tens of thousands of
dollars were confiscated from a New Lyme Township home Tuesday night.
Along with more than 900 pounds of marijuana, $76,400 in cash, five
vehicles, two Harley-Davidson motorcycles and a Honda four-wheel all-terrain
vehicle were among the list of other items confiscated from the home during
the raid, which resulted in six arrests.
The residents of the farmhouse at 5179 Day Road, located just off Route 6,
west of Route 11, received an unpleasant surprise Tuesday night after they
were met by more than 25 officers of the Trumbull-Ashtabula-Geauga (TAG)
law-enforcement task force, Cleveland-Based U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA) officers and Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and
Investigation officers, following a one-year investigation and the raid on
the house, which took a week and a half of careful planning and led to the
arrests of six individuals. We stepped into the house and said, ‘Wow.’ The
smell was obvious,” Geauga County Sheriff Daniel C. McClelland said.
McClelland said the marijuana, believed to be from the San Diego area, was
found in various bedrooms of the farmhouse. The money was found throughout
the house and vehicles. The street value of the marijuana is estimated at
$1.6 million. Police are considering the possibility of a potential
connection to Mexican narco traffickers. The marijuana was mostly in
10-pound bricks.
“We’re really pleased with the way everything went with this operation. The
group did a fantastic job, and it was a great team effort,” Ashtabula County
Chief Deputy Sheriff Howard Shetler said.
This raid comes a close second to TAG’s biggest raid, where 4,000 marijuana
plants in southern Ashtabula and northern Trumbull County were seized about
a year ago. According to a TAG press release, resident Thomas MacWilliams,
40, conducted the drug business from the home. He was placed in the
Ashtabula County Jail in Jefferson. Five of the six people arrested are from
Ashtabula and Lake counties; one person is from California. They range in
the age from 19 to 41 years.
The raid, which occurred at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, continued into the early
morning hours Wednesday.
Conveniently, Ohio law enforcement had been tipped off by a
California-division DEA office after a recent drug bust in California led
authorities to believe that activity was headed this way. The dealer,
traveling from California to Ohio, was arrested upon his arrival at
Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. A courier traveling from California
to Ohio, was under California-division DEA surveillance using a global
positioning system locator, and was carrying 200 pounds of the marijuana,
which was confiscated at the New Lyme residence. One firearm, scales and
marijuana papers also were found at the residence.
All actions of the dealer and others involved were under surveillance, down
to the arrival of the car in New Lyme Township. According to McClelland,
this dealer had been in operation for 10 years. He said it is possible 91
people may have ended up selling as little as a pound each of the marijuana.
“Judging by the amount that was confiscated, we took out one of the biggest
northeast Ohio operations there is, not exclusive to just Ashtabula, Lake or
Geauga,” Shetler said.
The six individuals who were arrested will be arraigned today in Eastern
District Court. The task force is seeking charges of drug trafficking,
possession of drugs, and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity. “This is
a great example of what happens when law enforcement works together. We want
to put all dope deals in northeast Ohio out,” McClelland said.
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