Criminal Justice

CLEVELAND - Terry L. Jackson Sr., 50, of Elyria, Ohio, was sentenced on Thursday, September 8, 2022, by U.S. District Judge Donald C. Nugent to more than 21.5 years in prison after Jackson was convicted in a trial by jury of distributing cocaine base (crack) and possession with intent to distribute fentanyl, cocaine base (crack) and methamphetamine.

CINCINNATI (ENQUIRER) - Colorful powdered fentanyl has reached the Hamilton County Crime Laboratory, and while “rainbow” colored fentanyl pills haven’t been seen here yet, it’s possible pills will be made by those who get the powdered form, our media partners at the Cincinnati Enquirer reports.

Ex-compliance officer James Barclay says he was "scapegoat" for DEA failure. Barclay had pleaded guilty in deal that avoided jail time.

CLEVELAND - Fourteen members of a drug trafficking organization operating in Northeast Ohio were charged today after a grand jury returned a 38-count indictment, alleging that the defendants participated in a conspiracy that distributed over 5 kilograms of cocaine, over 280 grams of crack cocaine base and fentanyl throughout the area.

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) led a roundtable discussion with Hamilton County Addiction Response Coalition (HC ARC), law enforcement, and other stakeholders to discuss opiate addiction, the rise in fentanyl overdoses in Ohio and across the U.S., and efforts to address those issues – both on a local and national level.

Franklin County drug overdose deaths spiked for a second year in a row, an increase largely driven by an influx of fentanyl.

A federal jury in the Southern District of Ohio convicted an Ohio physician on Friday for unlawfully distributing opioids from his Martin’s Ferry clinic.

CLEVELAND - Martin Escobar, 58, a former Mahoning County physician, was sentenced today to 25 years in prison by U.S. District Judge Donald C. Nugent after he previously pleaded guilty to 54 counts of illegally prescribing controlled substances—including two counts of distributing controlled substances that caused the deaths of two patients and one count of distributing a controlled substance to a person under the age of 21—and 31 counts of health care fraud.