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By Jim Carney
Beacon Journal staff writer
POSTED: 11:59 a.m. EDT, May 05, 2008
STOW: The street value of 30 kilos of cocaine seized at the Kent State Airport Friday night could be $2 million or more, law enforcement officials said this morning.
''This is a rather sizeable amount of cocaine'' for this area, Stow Police Chief Louis Dirker said.
The cocaine seizure was described in detail at a news conference at the Stow Police Department, and Dirker released a video showing the arrest of two of the three suspects in the case and the search of their Cessna 182 by a Kent police officer and police dog after the plane landed at the airport.
Arrested were Robert W. Hawes, 35, of Cleveland; Tommy A. Gonzales, 27, of Riverside, Calif., and Malcolm A. Sales, 45, of Westminster, Calif. All were charged with one count of felony possession of drugs and taken to the Summit County jail Friday night.
The three appeared in Cuyahoga Falls Municipal Court this afternoon, where Judge Lisa L. Coates set bond at $1 million cash for each.
John Ferster, resident agent in charge of the Cleveland office of the Drug Enforcement Agency, said it is likely that federal charges also would be filed against the three men.
''This is a big deal,'' Dirker said. ''This isn't a dime bag of marijuana.''
The chief said Stow police received a call from the Kent State University Police Department Friday saying they had been contacted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in Los Angeles concerning a shipment of cocaine being flown to Stow from California.
After Filo, the Kent police dog, searched the plane, Dirker said, Kent canine officer Marty Gilliland reported that the dog reacted as if there were drugs on board.
''He (Gilliland) said the plane was either full of T-bone steaks or cocaine because the dog went after'' what was on board, Dirker said.
Inside the community room at the Stow Safety Building today, the 30 wrapped packages of cocaine were put on display.
''This is an excellent example of several agencies working together,'' the chief said.
Along with Stow police and the DEA, other agencies that worked on the drug bust were the Kent State University and Kent police departments, the Ohio State Highway Patrol and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency.
Dirker said flight record showed that the Kent State University Airport was the destination of the plane, which also made stops in Denver and Indiana.
The cocaine is worth $25,000 a kilo, or $750,000, at its basic market value, he said, but the street value could be two to three times that -- up to $2.25 million.
Ferster said if cocaine is 100 percent pure, sellers ''double or triple their money.''
The drugs were found in a luggage compartment behind the pilot. Each package was marked ''Chuko,'' but Dirker and Ferster said they did not know the significance of that marking.
Dirker said Hawes has a record of being charged with drug trafficking.
The chief described the arrest as a ''once-in-a-lifetime experience'' for a law enforcement officer.
''I've been in police work 33 years and I've never seen anything like this,'' he said.
-EOS2-Video of Drug Bust
(If the video below does not work use the link to the video in the right rail of this page)
STOW: The street value of 30 kilos of cocaine seized at the Kent State Airport Friday night could be $2 million or more, law enforcement officials said this morning.
''This is a rather sizeable amount of cocaine'' for this area, Stow Police Chief Louis Dirker said.
The cocaine seizure was described in detail at a news conference at the Stow Police Department, and Dirker released a video showing the arrest of two of the three suspects in the case and the search of their Cessna 182 by a Kent police officer and police dog after the plane landed at the airport.
Arrested were Robert W. Hawes, 35, of Cleveland; Tommy A. Gonzales, 27, of Riverside, Calif., and Malcolm A. Sales, 45, of Westminster, Calif. All were charged with one count of felony possession of drugs and taken to the Summit County jail Friday night.
The three appeared in Cuyahoga Falls Municipal Court this afternoon, where Judge Lisa L. Coates set bond at $1 million cash for each.
John Ferster, resident agent in charge of the Cleveland office of the Drug Enforcement Agency, said it is likely that federal charges also would be filed against the three men.
''This is a big deal,'' Dirker said. ''This isn't a dime bag of marijuana.''
The chief said Stow police received a call from the Kent State University Police Department Friday saying they had been contacted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in Los Angeles concerning a shipment of cocaine being flown to Stow from California.
After Filo, the Kent police dog, searched the plane, Dirker said, Kent canine officer Marty Gilliland reported that the dog reacted as if there were drugs on board.
''He (Gilliland) said the plane was either full of T-bone steaks or cocaine because the dog went after'' what was on board, Dirker said.
Inside the community room at the Stow Safety Building today, the 30 wrapped packages of cocaine were put on display.
''This is an excellent example of several agencies working together,'' the chief said.
Along with Stow police and the DEA, other agencies that worked on the drug bust were the Kent State University and Kent police departments, the Ohio State Highway Patrol and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency.
Dirker said flight record showed that the Kent State University Airport was the destination of the plane, which also made stops in Denver and Indiana.
The cocaine is worth $25,000 a kilo, or $750,000, at its basic market value, he said, but the street value could be two to three times that -- up to $2.25 million.
Ferster said if cocaine is 100 percent pure, sellers ''double or triple their money.''
The drugs were found in a luggage compartment behind the pilot. Each package was marked ''Chuko,'' but Dirker and Ferster said they did not know the significance of that marking.
Dirker said Hawes has a record of being charged with drug trafficking.
The chief described the arrest as a ''once-in-a-lifetime experience'' for a law enforcement officer.
''I've been in police work 33 years and I've never seen anything like this,'' he said.
-EOS2-
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