Why Saturday was a big day for drug enforcement in Butler County

A father and son were arrested on Saturday as the two “persons deemed major players in drug trafficking,” according to Hamilton Police Chief Craig Bucheit, who laid out the details Monday afternoon of the investigation that involved multiple local, state and federal law enforcement agencies.

Bucheit said Jose Alfredo Guel Sr., 51, and Jose Alfredo Guel Jr., 26, were each arrested on two charges of trafficking in drugs and two charges of possession of drugs. Jose Guel Jr. was arrested on two additional charges of having weapons while under disability.

“The investigation culminated this weekend in an early morning raid in the city of Hamilton at three locations.,” he said. “A majority of the seizures were at one particular location (1740 Grand Blvd.) where the father and son lived. There were two houses next two each other, one primarily where they lived and the other one primarily where they were keeping the drugs.”

Both the father and the son are being held on state drug charges, but Bucheit said law enforcement is working with the assistant U.S. attorney in Cincinnati in order to pursue federal charges against them.

After the search warrant was issued, law enforcement confiscated a large amount of heroin, cocaine and marijuana, a large amount of cash, vehicles and weapons.

“Over two-and-a-half kilos of cocaine, over two-and-a-half kilos of heroin, over 10 pounds of marijuana and approximately $67,000 in cash, two guns and four vehicles were seized,” Bucheit said, noting that a lot of what was seized was made available for view at the press conference.

“The drugs came from Mexico to Ohio to be distributed in Butler County,” Bucheit said, adding that there were two other arrests for drug-related offenses and three arrests on immigration charges.

The long-term investigation involved local, state and federal agencies including Ohio’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Immigration Customs Enforcement, ATF and the Butler County Regional Narcotics Task Force, which includes multiple local law enforcement agencies.

Fairfield Police Chief Mike Dickey said the show of force and collaboration is a concerted effort by law enforcement to get the drugs and criminals off the streets.

“If you are a drug dealer in this county you need to realize that every agency is working together to put you in jail,” Dickey said. “That’s our goal and that’s our effort to suppress this. We are working together to accomplish that.”

Bucheit said these types of investigations will continue and the cooperation and collaboration during the multiple agency pursuit of drug dealers “has been the best I’ve seen in my career.”

Hamilton police and officials with the Butler County BURN unit gave updates on the arrests and investigation as a news conference today. Video of the news conference is below.

There were two other arrests for drug-related offenses and three arrests on immigration charges, officials said.

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