MJP –
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio announced today that federal, state, and local law enforcement officials have unsealed an indictment charging 15 members of a Lorain County-based drug trafficking operation (DTO).
According to court documents, the DTO was reportedly trafficking fentanyl in counterfeit pill form in the cities of Elyria and Lorain and the surrounding Northeast Ohio areas.
From May 2023 to October 2024, the defendants reportedly conspired to distribute and possess with intent to distribute mixtures and substances containing fentanyl.
According to the department, the following individuals were charged in a 19-count indictment:
- Ronald Whittaker, 31, of Cleveland, Ohio
- Tyvez McCullum, 30, of Elyria, Ohio
- Ivan Barrios, 45, of Lorain, Ohio
- Tavon Martin, 28, of Lorain, Ohio
- Jaivon Wint, 27, of Lorain, Ohio
- Katlynn Caudill, 22, of Lorain, Ohio
- Nicholas Thomson, 47, of Elyria, Ohio
- Max Kennedy, 19, of Wellington, Ohio
- Jordan Johnson, 29, of Elyria, Ohio
- Angela Shuck, 35, of Lorain, Ohio
- Stacey Thomson, 48, of Elyria, Ohio
- Tyrone Phillips, 25, of Elyria, Ohio
- Joseph Kushner, 32, of Berea, Ohio
- Nicholas Burkholder, 29, of Elyria, Ohio
- Aubrey Brown, 29, of Elyria, Ohio
McCullum and Whittaker reportedly led the conspiracy, with Whittaker allegedly supplying McCullum, who then redistributed the fentanyl pills to others named in the indictment.
Those individuals would reportedly further distribute the pills within their own networks throughout the Elyria and Lorain region.
The defendants are accused of being responsible for the distribution of an estimated 4,406.25 grams of fentanyl and/or approximately 42,793 blue fentanyl pills.
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“Given its extreme potency, fentanyl is extraordinarily dangerous—it has poisoned and killed over 3,500 Ohioans in 2023 alone.
Distributing it disguised as legitimate prescription medication, as the indictment alleges the defendants did here, is particularly condemnable because it heightens the overdose danger for those who ingest it,” said U.S. Attorney Rebecca C. Lutzko in a statement.
