LA Gangs Supplying Ohio with Drugs

The headline calls attention to shutting down a drug pipeline between Cincinnati and Dayton. But a look deeper shows that those arrested are residents of California and alleged members of LA gangs.

The arrests of five come after a years-long investigation. At the core of the case is tracking narcotics and gang activity. The bust came after members of a Cincinnati street gang were followed to the suburbs where they picked up drugs. But the trail started earlier and thousands of miles away, where unnamed technology allowed government agents to track the drugs from Los Angeles. Three of the defendants are California residents, two from LA.

How big was the operation? Police seized more than a million dollars worth of cocaine, in both the powdered and crack form. This includes more than 20 pounds of the drug. The charges these men will face – conspiracy to traffic narcotics – can net up to a life sentence. The crooks maintained several safe houses in the Hamilton area, including businesses where they could store drugs and supplies. Police didn’t say how large a volume of drugs was moved while the investigation was in progress.

The flow is from California gangs who are associated with Cincinnati gangs in a kind of perverted distribution network that mimics how corporations spread through franchising. Interestingly, while this huge bust happened in Ohio, at the same time, in the Pacific Northwest and California, cocaine and crack use is down dramatically, along with deaths from gang-related crime. It may be that the days of the drive-by shooting are passing and a more advanced “business model” is emerging. Along these lines, most of the defendants in this case are middle-aged. They bring the resources and planning not usually seen in the stereotypical teen gangbanger.

It is unlikely that the entire network was rolled up in this arrest. The gangs remain at each end of the pipeline. Police did warn that if anyone was thinking of stepping into the vacuum just created, “We will be there waiting.”