Street gang found fertile ground for opioid operation
Prosecutors say group’s pipeline went to Appalachia.
CLEVELAND — Ninety miles separate Cleveland from Columbiana County but insatiable appetites for opioids and cash forged a connection between the two places — a pipeline that funneled more than 1.3 million doses of heroin, fentanyl and other lethal drugs into the rural community.
Columbiana bears little resemblance to Northeast Ohio. Situated south of Youngstown, it’s part Appalachia and part Steel Valley, closer to Pittsburgh than Cleveland in many ways.
But a bigcity street gang called, Down the Way, found Columbiana to be fertile ground for peddling drugs smuggled in from Mexico, prosecutors said. The principal dealers, according to authorities, were five members of a Northeast Ohio family — four of whom have been charged in the drug conspiracy, the other shot dead two months ago as he tried to rob a Taco Bell in Cleveland.
The three-year operation ended this week when prosecutors announced charges against three siblings identified as leaders of the Down the Way street gang and 97 others involved in the massive drug trafficking operation.
The brothers’ uncle, Jermaine Jackson, and cousin DeCarlo Jackson were also part of the drug trafficking ring, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said Wednesday in a phone interview with cleveland.com.
Jermaine Jackson helped ship carfentanil to Columbiana County but was not part of the street gang, DeWine said. DeCarlo Jackson would have been indicted had he not been shot dead Sept. 6, at the Taco Bell on West 117th Street in Cleveland, DeWine said.
Columbiana County Prosecutor Bob Herron said Wednesday that the five family members were instrumental in bringing the deadly drugs into southeastern Ohio.
To be clear, he, said, they did not create the opioid problem in Columbiana, and it will not end with their arrests.
“There was plenty of heroin and fentanyl prior to their activity but they contributed in a huge way to get considerable amount of fentanyl on the streets,” Herron said. “We’ve prosecuted them previously for other drug trafficking offenses, but they came back in a big way.”
The indictments announced Tuesday were the latest salvo in the state’s fight against an opioid epidemic that has claimed thousands of lives in recent years. The drug trafficking operation brought enough heroin, fentanyl, carfentanil and cocaine into southeastern Ohio to kill everyone in Columbiana County and 11 nearby counties, DeWine said.
“This was a massive amount of drugs brought into this area,” said DeWine.
The 756-count indictment, the result of an investigation authorities called, Operation Big Oak, also includes gang and racketeering charges.
It was the largest crime network ever taken down in Columbiana County, Herron said.
The traffickers acquired the drugs from Mexico, then shipped them from Cleveland to Columbiana County, Herron said.
They sent an estimated 1 million lethal doses of carfentanil and 400,000 doses of fentanyl to southeastern Ohio over a three-year span, he said.
Carfentanil is 50 times more potent than fentanyl, which is 50 times more potent than heroin.
The drugs are the main cause of the spike in deaths in the opioid crisis.
The Cleveland group organized shipments both large and small to Columbiana County and even helped organize street-level deals there from their base in Cleveland, Herron said.