The Morrow County Sheriff’s Office began serving warrants on 22 indictments for drug trafficking.
These warrants were issued by the Morrow County Grand Jury on Feb. 23.
The indictments were the result of a lengthy investigation that dates back to the summer of 2016.
“The importance of these indictments is that we, the local law enforcement community, have noticed that there is a strong connection between the burglaries and drug use in this community,” Morrow County Sheriff John Hinton said. “Thus, it is our hope that by aggressively pursuing the drug traffickers that we will drive the illicit drug trade from our county and that this will ultimately reduce the number of property crimes in our county.”
Also involved in the arrests were Sheriff Scott Kent of the Crawford County Sheriff’s Office, Sheriff Dave Shaffer of the Knox County Sheriff’s Office, Cardington Police Department and the Mount Gilead Police Department.
The 14 individuals arrested in connection with the investigation are: Jakob Swango for burglary; Paris Justice for burglary; Shannon Waterhouse for aggravated trafficking in drugs; Christopher Sowash for aggravated trafficking in drugs; Smitty Gayheart for complicity to aggravated trafficking in drugs; Timothy Nelson for aggravated trafficking in drugs; Justin Coleman for trafficking in drugs; Edward Ebersole for trafficking in drugs; Troy Spaulding for complicity to aggravated trafficking in drugs; Crystal Deland for trafficking in drugs; Johnnie Martinez for offenses involving counterfeit controlled substances; Elizabeth Gale for trafficking in drugs; Tanner Depolo for trafficking in drugs; James Grimmett Jr. for trafficking in drugs.
In addition to those arrested yesterday the Sheriff’s Office is actively pursuing the following:
Mark Myers Jr.
If anyone knows the whereabouts of these individuals please call the Morrow County Sheriff’s Office at 419-946-4444. Do not try to detain or apprehend these individuals on your own.