The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
DRUG BUST NETS 22 INDICTMENTS
Trafficking ring sold drugs in Cleveland, Euclid, Lake County, authorities say
Twenty-two people have been indicted on federal charges stemming from a drug trafficking ring that sold heroin, fentanyl and other drugs to more than 300 customers in Northeast Ohio.
U.S. District Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio Justin Herdman was joined in a news conference March 13 at Euclid City Hall by Euclid Police Chief Scott Meyers, Mayor Kirsten Holzheimer Gail and DEA Assistant Special Agent in Charge Keith Martin among others.
Sixteen of the 22 suspects named in the 42-count indictment were in custody at the time of the 11 a.m. news conference The arrests were a result of a seven-monthlong investigation
According to officials, the suspects allegedly focused on selling drugs to customers on the east side of Cleveland as well as Euclid and Lake County.
Drugs sold included heroin, fentanyl, fentanyl analogs such as carfentanil and acetylfentanyl, crack cocaine and powder
cocaine. The heroin sold by the group generally mixed with fentanyl, fentanyl analogues or a combination of them.
The group went by the name “The Grovewood Boys,” taking its name from Grovewoods Avenue in the Collinwood neighborhood of Cleveland.
Named in the indictment are Joseph P. Gray, Jr.; Malcolm Gibson; Samuel Gibson; Mark Evans; Westley Siggers; Raqwan Ofield; Paul Bell; Larry Jackson; Ricky Jackson; Brendan Craig; Aaron Crosby; Chino Massey; Shondell Mack; Lejon Kidd, Jr.; Da’eon Gray; Aminah Colvin; Shanita Jennings; Leanna Nabulsi; George Salem; Jeffrey Auvil; William Bloomfield; and Christina Gordenier.
Officials allege that 30-year-old Gray led the drug trafficking operation.
Members allegedly used phones in the names of other people to avoid detection by law enforcement. A single “customer phone” was passed between members so customers could buy drugs at any hour.
Siggers, Ofield, Ricky Jackson, Crosby, Massey, Kidd and other members primarily sold to their own customer bases but coordinated with Gray to keep an inventory of drugs available for sale, officials said.
The members discussed not keeping a large inventory of drugs on hand because of the legal and financial risk and often re-supplied in small quantities,
sometimes on a daily basis.
Officials said customers were directed to specific locations to meet and buy drugs. Sites included a residence on Arcade Avenue in Cleveland, a residence on Huntmere Avenue in Cleveland, the parking lot of a Family Dollar Store in Cleveland and the intersection of 246th Street and Ellsworth Avenue in Euclid.
A commercial property on Holmes Avenue in Cleveland was allegedly used as a centralized location to weigh and package drugs, conduct drugs transactions and to count and divide profits, according to officials.
Payment was accepted in cash as well as digital payment services like Cash App and through the purchase of gasoline and other goods.
Martin said at one point members wanted to trade guns for drugs.
“There was no consideration of human life, it was all for profit,” Martin said.
Herdman said the members of the organization knew the deadly potential of the drugs they were selling. Some had code names like “casket” and “OD.”
There are overdoses linked to investigation and are currently under investigation, Martin said.
One person overdosed in Wickliffe on June 6, 2018, after the victim was allegedly sold a mixture of heroin, fentanyl and fentanyl analogs from the 37-yearold Siggers. On that same day Siggers is accused of attempting to flee from police when officers tied to stop him, according to the indictment.
Siggers is also accused in the indictment of possessing several grams of drugs in Willoughby when he was parked in a Ford F-150 pickup truck parked in the city’s Motel 6 on Jan. 8, 2018. The drugs were 6.06 grams of cocaine and 4.37 grams of a mixture comprised of heroin, carfentanil and cocaine.
Gray and Siggers are among those currently in custody.
More than 200 law enforcement officers were involved in the March 13 arrests. The investigation remains ongoing, Martin said.
In addition to the arrests, weapons were seized along with heroin, cocaine and what is believed to be fentanyl, Martin said.
With the potency of drugs being sold, multiple doses of the opioidoverdose reversal medicine naloxone are needed. Meyer said his department once needed to administer 18 doses to revive an overdose victim.
“I want to assure you your police department is working diligently to make our city a safe place to all to live in visit,” Meyers said. “Many of your calls to police reporting drug activity were instrumental to this investigation.”
Herdman called the opioid epidemic a “seemingly endless mass casualty event.”
“People are battling addiction and they need to understand the heroin they are putting into their bodies is not heroin and the cocaine they are buying off the street is not cocaine,” he said.