by Nick Castele
Eight people in Northeast Ohio have been indicted on federal firearms and narcotics charges. Five are in custody, and officials say more arrests are coming. Law enforcement also seized more than 30 guns.
Federal agents and local police swept up pistols, revolvers and rifles, after working for months to identify people selling weapons in Cleveland’s fourth district, on the southeast side of the city.
Some defendants are accused of illegally possessing guns, despite having prior convictions. Prosecutors charge that others sold heroin and crack cocaine. They’ve been charged in several separate cases, and aren’t accused of all working together. But they all found themselves targets of a federal operation focusing on gun violence in Cleveland.
Ninety-seven people have been killed in homicides in the city to date in 2015—already above the average for the past several years.
U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach said he doesn’t believe these defendants are linked to the recent shooting deaths of children in Cleveland. And he said arrests alone won’t stop the gunfire.
“It’s a necessary, important essential component of dealing with gun violence, but it can’t be the only solution,” Dettelbach said. “You cannot arrest your way out of this problem.”
But the bigger questions of stemming the flow of illegal guns, he says, belong to policymakers.
