Area residents charged with drug crimes

Several area residents were among nearly 30 arrested and indicted by a Wyandot County grand jury.

Sheriff Mike Hetzel said one Bucyrus resident is among those on the list, but others are from Bloomville, Nevada, Sycamore, Upper Sandusky, Kenton and Carey.

“They’re just so mobile,” Hetzel said of north central Ohio drug traffickers.

“They have transitioned from one area to another for housing. Some share an apartment or house. I guess it’s birds of a feather,” Hetzel said.

The list includes Cody Thomas Lykins, 29, of Bucyrus, charged with trafficking in drugs (cocaine), a fifth-degree felony.

Others include:
• Heather Nicole Shuff, 23, of Sycamore, complicity to trafficking in cocaine, also a fifth-degree felony.
• Joshua D. Dyer, 31, of Nevada, two counts trafficking in drugs, both fourth-degree felonies.
• Allen M. Ochier, 30, of Nevada, trafficking in drugs, a third-degree felony.
• Justin Michael Vaughn, 23, of Bloomville, complicity to trafficking in heroin, a fifth-degree felony.

Hetzel said resources from the METRICH enforcement unit, the 10-county drug task force, were used in the investigations. Wyandot and Crawford counties are among the counties served by METRICH.

Hetzel said the drug trade has changed in the region over the years.
“Years ago it was marijuana, then cocaine and now it has become heroin,” he said.

Hetzel, like other law enforcement officials, has seen the drug’s growth. He called it “cheap, and terrible.”

He credits ongoing investigations by Wyandot County Sheriff’s deputies with the recent arrests. “We may have a few more to come,” Hetzel said this week.

Due to a shortage of jail space, some of those arrested in Wyandot County are housed in Crawford and Putnam county facilities.

Defendants are appearing this week for initial hearings after the indictments were issued last week.

Originally published in the Telegraph-Forum on August 28, 2014.

 

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