Ohio deputies arrest nearly 20 people in drug operation

FREMONT — Sheriff’s deputies and police in three northwest Ohio counties arrested nearly 20 people today in an operation described as the culmination of a five-year investigation into the cocaine drug trade, authorities said.

The arrests of 25 of 34 people indicted recently by grand juries in Ottawa, Sandusky, and Wood counties on charges ranging from trafficking in cocaine to engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity were announced today at a news conference attended by Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine.

The indictments stem from a multi-agency investigation that involved the Attorney General’s Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation, sheriff’s offices in Sandusky, Ottawa, and Wood counties, Fremont police, and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.

Ottawa County Sheriff Stephen Levorchick said that law enforcement had rounded up 18 people by late in the day and arrests would continue. He said seven people named in the indictments already were in custody on unrelated cases.

“This operation is the culmination of extensive police work which was only possible with the cooperative efforts of many law enforcement agencies,” Sheriff Levorchick said.

Some of the defendants were arraigned today in the Sandusky County jail. Twenty of the 34 people indictment are tied to addresses in Sandusky County and three live in Ottawa County.