The use of methamphetamines is growing in the Mahoning Valley, law enforcement officials report...... Submitted photo / Drug Enforcement Administration

Methamphetamine is one of the most prevalent drugs now being abused by area addicts, law enforcement at all levels say.

“Meth is exploding now,” said Charles Morrow, a Trumbull County assistant prosecutor. “Carfentanil may kill you, but meth will make you look like a drug addict.”

Sgt. Larry McLaughlin, commander of the Mahoning Valley Drug Task Force, agreed that meth is becoming popular with addicts to other substances.

“Meth use is on the rise now, and we were alerted that it was gonna be coming in from across the Mexican border,” McLaughlin said. “They can get it cheaper by bringing it in, so they don’t have to worry about the risks in making it or getting someone getting busted buying the needed Sudafed.”

Morrow said he heard a story at a recent seminar about the effects of meth. He said the drug can cause delusions, hallucinations and unexplainable actions.

“This out-of-state prosecutor told the story of young parents on meth who killed their 10-month-old baby in its crib because they thought he was an undercover drug informant,” he said.

You never know where methamphetamine will turn up. A Howland police report from Dec. 22, 2020, illustrates this point.

During a traffic stop, officer Adam Rios noticed the female pasenger acting strange as well as the smell of burnt marijuana. Eventually, a bulk amount of meth — about 3 grams — was found in the woman’s bra. She was charged with a third-degree felony that sees a potential for a maximum three-year prison term. Those possessing five times the bulk amount could face as much as 16 1/2 years in prison as first-degree felons, prosecutors note.

The meth-making process, which hasn’t changed much over the years, is very combustible, McLaughlin said.

The one pot or “shake and bake” method using lithium batteries and plastic bottles can burst if it becomes over-pressurized, McLaughlin said.

He also noted that most of the time, meth makers in homemade labs are walking around in street clothes.

“When we go in there, we look like we are going into a space walk,” McLaughlin said about the protective gear of the task force members.

McLaughlin said the bigger meth busts have used officers from both task forces in the Mahoning Valley: the Mahoning Valley Drug Task Force and Trumbull County sheriff office’s TAG drug task force.

“We have to be trained and certified by the DEA. Between TAG and us and Portage (county), we have about 10 to 15 guys who are trained to go in (meth labs) in the tri-county area,” McLaughlin said.

ONE WOMAN’S STORY

One Portage County woman whose Mahoning Road home was raided several months ago for meth spoke about her rollercoaster life, after using meth for about 22 years.

The raid saw her boyfriend arrested by federal drug authorities.

“We just don’t know what to do,” said the woman — who only gave the first name of Jen out of fear of retaliation by drug dealers higher up the chain. “This is his first time having to deal with anything at a federal level, and we’re over here begging and crying for help and trying to show proof and trying to show that we wanted out of the game per se. But it just seems like the harder you try to get out, the harder the (deleted) law enforcement comes after you,” she said.

“Yes, they are wanting him to roll on people,” she said of her boyfriend, “and I had to open Billy’s eyes as to where he was on the totem pole.”

Law enforcement just raises the stakes, she said, making decisions even harder.

“They are trying to say that if he doesn’t work with the district attorney, then they’re adding five more years onto his sentence. But the problem is he has an attorney who’s not even wanting to respond to him, to talk to him or even to you. All this evidence that we have that can help win his case … so we’re at the point that the cops win, because honestly what else are we going to do?”

The woman maintained that she has gone through more traumatic experiences in her life than any person of her age of 38.

“I suffer from PTSD, severe manic depression and severe anxiety with bipolar disorder,” Jen said.

The woman said she has been fighting off mental disorders since the age of 6 when she lost the closest person to her — her grandfather. And then on May 12, 2001, Jen had to identifiy the body of her brother, who was killed in a head-on collision on U.S. Route 224 in Portage County.

“I couldn’t handle the pain and suffering my reality was giving to me,” she said.

She said she uses meth just to cope with the constant pain, chronic or psychological.

“People do not understand or realize what meth does to a person. As it is a mood enhancer, its main purpose is a neuro blocker. The moment I started to use meth again, I was able to stand on my own.”

The pain would only get worse , however, with a broken relationship with another boyfriend.

“In a blink of an eye, I lost everything … the next thing I knew, we were living out of my truck in the streets of Youngstown, ending up going days without eating. We would have to steal a pack of hot dogs from the Family Dollar Store.”

STATISTICS

Steve Irwin, spokesman for Ohio Attorney General David Yost, said the statistics on small meth lab seizures over the past five years may not reflect what is going on now as far as meth use.

“It’s not about the small-time, one-person labs making it here,” Irwin said. “This stuff is being shipped in for widespread use, especially in recent years.”

The Drug Enforcement Agency’s Detroit field office — which covers three districts in northern Ohio — reports a heavy intake of methamphetamine in the first six months of 2021.

“In 2021, we have already seized more than the previous three years combined,” said Brian McNeal, DEA’s public information officer. “Cartels are flooding markets throughout the U.S. with cheap and potent methamphetamines.”

McNeal said from 2018 to 2020, the DEA seized a total of 242 kilograms of meth in the Cleveland, Toledo and Youngstown districts.

According to figures provided by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the U.S. Ohio Northern Ohio District Court, a total of 272 criminal cases involving methamphetamine production or possession have been filed with the court since fiscal year 2016.

The highest number occurred in fiscal year 2020, when 89 meth cases filed, representing more than 18 percent of all drug cases filed that year with the court, according to figures provided by Daniel Ball, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Cleveland.

Ball’s figures show that 2021 will be an even busier year for meth cases at the federal court level, as 62 meth-related cases have been filed through the end of March. That figure represents 14 percent of the court’s entire drug docket.

Capt. Tony Villaneuva, commander of the Trumbull County Sheriff Office’s TAG drug task force, said so far in 2021, TAG has seized 315 grams of meth, 1,004 grams of fentanyl and 4,771.4 grams of cocaine.

“Cocaine seems to be on the rise for this year, however, drug trends change daily,” Villaneuva said.

In 2020 TAG seized 466.44 grams of meth, 1,059.27 grams of cocaine, 1,435.24 grams of fentanyl / heroin. In 2019, seizure totals 1,938.41 grams of meth; 5,261.33 grams of cocaine, and 1,394.41 grams fentanyl / heroin.

“In 2020, we conducted 52 search warrants and had 267 indictments,” he said. “Those indictments represent criminal counts, not 267 people.”

gvogrin@tribtoday.com