A Columbus man will spend up to 20 years in prison for selling batches of heroin that killed one person and caused serious injury to another last year.
Richard R. Edwards, 28, of Columbus, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to distributing heroin and fentanyl that resulted in the death of a Columbus woman in December of 2016 and led to a non-fatal overdose of a Columbus man months earlier in August. Edwards was arrested in March and has remained in custody since. [Read more…]
“Our nation is in crisis,” President Trump’s Opioid Commission wrote in its recently released interim report. The commission urged the president to declare a national state of emergency. “With approximately 142 Americans dying every day, America is enduring a death toll equal to September 11th every three weeks,” the commission wrote in its report.
Lake County has seen the growing devastation of the crisis. In 2016, 86 people died of drug overdoses, shattering the previous record of 46 set just two years prior. [Read more…]
Members of the METRICH Task Force searched five houses Wednesday— including one on Bowman Street and another on Louise Avenue — as law enforcement officials targeted 52 suspects during Operation Summer Drug Sweep.
At least 29 suspects were nabbed on Wednesday, officials said. Six were already incarcerated on charges relating to drug trafficking and drug possession.
Lt. Joe Petrycki, commander of METRICH, Wednesday afternoon said the day-long drug indictment effort and searches have resulted in recovery of several weapons, more than $3,000 and suspected heroin, cocaine and marijuana. [Read more…]
Suspected drugs were found in a woman’s vehicle Tuesday, according to Seneca County Drug Task Force — METRICH Enforcement Unit.
Kimberly A. Kistler, 45, was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia. Additional charges were pending.
The release states the task force, with additional officers from Seneca County Sheriff’s Office and Fostoria Police Department, executed a search warrant on Kistler’s vehicle during a traffic stop.
The search warrant yielded suspected crack cocaine, suspected heroin, money, drug paraphernalia and criminal tools, it states.
Kistler was incarcerated at Seneca County Jail.
Originally published in the Advertiser Tribune on July 26, 2017.
A Findlay man has been arrested on a felony drug charge after an raid at his Bernard Avenue residence Monday night.
David K. Claypool, 50, 1425 Bernard Ave., was taken into custody and has been charged with permitting drug abuse, a fifth-degree felony.
Claypool’s arrest came after the Hancock County METRICH Drug Task Force, with the assistance of the Findlay Police Department Emergency Response Team, executed a search warrant at 1425 Bernard Ave. at about 9:30 p.m. Monday.
Police said the search yielded heroin, crack cocaine, drug paraphernalia, cash, and items indicative of drug trafficking.
Police said additional charges and arrests are expected pending laboratory results.
The Hancock METRICH Drug Enforcement Unit is supported by METRICH in Mansfield and funded in part by the Office of Criminal Justice Services.
Originally published in The Courier on July 25, 2017.
