Ohio Sheriff’s Record Bust of Heroin Traced to Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel

An Ohio county sheriff recently announced his agency had made one of the largest heroin seizures ever in the Miami Valley – drugs that were sourced to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel. Hundreds of thousands of dollars and several firearms were also seized. The sheriff is now warning the cartel to stay out of his territory.

Deputies arrested 40-year-old Jose Morales Medina on November 17 after a traffic stop, according to WDTN 2 News. The arrest was part of a two-month investigation being conducted by members of the Miami Valley Bulk Smuggling Task Force.

Officers found in total, $450,000 cash and 20 pounds of pure heroin they say is from Mexico and brought to Ohio by the Sinaloa drug cartel. Monday night investigators served three search warrants, one in Dayton, one in Harrison Township, and a third in Shelby County.  All three homes searched were owned by Medina according to Sheriff [Phil] Plummer. Plummer also said Media had been deported from the U.S. three times.

Mexican cartels have been flooding the U.S. Midwest with cheap—but highly pure and powerful—black tar and white powder heroin in the past few years. Ground zero for this heroin explosion has been the state of Ohio, which was once overrun by pill mills and shady doctors prescribing opiates like Oxycontin to anyone willing to pay hundreds of dollars in cash for the prescription. Authorities have cracked down on these operations, but opiate addicts are now turning to cheaper and readily available heroin for a fix.

Usually drug cartel minions who work solely as street distributors across the US try to avoid taunting law enforcement because it’s usually bad for business. Any threats made directly to agents or officers are much more common in border states. However, Plummer says the cartels have been threatening law enforcement in his county. Plummer said to the cartels during a press conference, “Stay out of Montgomery County and stay out of the Miami Valley.”

Medina is currently in the Montgomery County Jail and according to Jail records he has not been formally charged. The investigation is ongoing, and while Plummer said no more arrests were imminent, that could change as the investigation progresses.

Sylvia Longmire is a border security expert and Contributing Editor for Breitbart Texas. You can read more about cross-border issues in her latest book, Border Insecurity: Why Big Money, Fences, and Drones Aren’t Making Us Safer.