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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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