Author: MIL-OSI Publisher

Source: US FBI

Matthew Lamp, 29, of Coventry Township, has been sentenced to 130 months in prison after he admitted to transporting and possessing child sexual abuse material.

Source: US FBI

CLEVELAND – The Northern Ohio Violent Crime Consortium (NOVCC) recently brought together more than 100 regional law enforcement participants, representing more than 20 agencies, to take part in a region-wide initiative to discuss public safety. The annual event is hosted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) for the Northern District of Ohio. The District covers the 40 northern-most counties in the state of Ohio, which is home to more than 5.7 million people.

The violent crime consortium was established in 2007 through a Department of Justice grant to specifically address violent crime issues in eight Northern Ohio cities: Akron, Canton, Cleveland, Elyria, Lorain, Mansfield, Toledo, and Youngstown.

As the current top federal law enforcement officer for the District, Acting U.S. Attorney Carol M. Skutnik provided welcoming remarks on the importance of the consortium’s work to keep crime off the streets.

“The Consortium’s purpose is to prevent and reduce violent crime through the use of data-driven and evidence-based technologies,” said Skutnik. “NOVCC enhances our member agencies through skills training on accepted best practices and emerging technologies.”

Subject-matter experts addressed several key topics at this year’s gathering including the importance of inter-agency data sharing and information to combat crime, promising law enforcement practices, and modern policing in the digital age.

The USAO would like to acknowledge and thank the following for attending and participating in this year’s event:

Event speakers representing

• Fordham University
• Johns Hopkins University Center for Gun Violence Solutions
• Blacksburg, Virginia Police Department
• Brookhaven, Georgia Police Department
• Research Innovations, Inc.

Law enforcement agencies represented

• Akron Police Department
• Avon Police Department
• The University of Akron Police Department
• Barberton Police Department
• Berea Police Department
• Canton Police Department
• Cleveland Division of Police
• Cuyahoga County Sheriff
• Elyria Police Department
• Lorain Police Department
• Mansfield Police Department
• Maple Heights Police Department
• North Royalton Police Department
• Put-in-Bay Police Department
• Sandusky Police Department
• Toledo Police Department
• Warren Police Department
• Westlake Police Department
• Youngstown Police Department

State agencies

• Ohio Adult Parole Authority
• Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction
• Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Services

Nonprofit agency

• Partnership for a Safer Cleveland

Federal agencies

• ATF-Cleveland
• FBI-Cleveland
• U.S. Marshals Service-Cleveland
• U.S. Department of Justice-Office of Legal Policy

For more information about the consortium, contact Thomas McCartney at 216-622-3955.

Source: US FBI

Suitcases stuffed with drugs were flown from L.A. to sell on Cleveland streets

Source: US FBI

College students from across northern Ohio are invited to apply to the 2025 FBI Cleveland Collegiate Academy.

Source: US FBI

TOLEDO, Ohio – A federal jury has convicted an Ohio man of attempting to entice and coerce a minor into illegal sexual activity and attempted production of child sexual abuse materials (CSAM), also known as child pornography. Derran Reebel, 52, of Toledo, was found guilty of committing criminal offenses that violate federal laws regarding the sexual exploitation of children.

According to court documents, from Oct. 10-15, 2020, Reebel used a social media application to communicate with a minor, namely, an undercover agent purporting to be a 14-year old girl. Evidence presented at trial to the jury included the defendant’s sexually explicit communications which were sent through the app’s messaging function in repeated attempts to persuade the minor into sending him sexually explicit photos and commit sexual acts.

In November 2024, Reebel was convicted of receiving and distributing CSAM, for nearly eight years, from about Jan. 1, 2014 through Aug. 17, 2022. During a federal search warrant execution of his residence, investigators found numerous CSAM items that included visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct in his possession. Law enforcement officials also discovered that Reebel used social media for a number of years to chat with minors and send them sexually explicit messages and photos of himself.

Sentencing for both convictions has not yet been scheduled. Reebel faces a minimum sentence of 15 years and a maximum of 40 years in prison.

This case was investigated by the FBI-Toledo. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sara Al-Sorghali and Frank Spryszak for the Northern District of Ohio.

This case was brought as part of the Justice Department’s “Project Safe Childhood,” a nationwide initiative to combat the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, the initiative marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information, visit justice.gov/psc.

To report child exploitation, please visit cybertipline.org, or call 1-800-843-5678, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Source: US FBI

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A New Jersey man was sentenced in U.S. District Court here today to 18 months in prison for his role in a nationwide, off-the-road tire sale fraud scheme that resulted in tens of millions of dollars of losses.

Ahmet Neidik, 65, of Fort Lee, New Jersey, pleaded guilty in January 2024 to conspiring to commit wire fraud. Before his guilty plea, Neidik allegedly fled to Turkey and then returned to the United States.

Neidik was the co-owner of, and ran the daily operations for, purported transportation, logistics and importing/exporting businesses. Some of the proceeds of the scheme were sent to businesses controlled by Neidik. Neidik would then wire money to the bank accounts of co-conspirators.

John K. Eckerd, Jr., 61, of Dallas, was one of the leaders of the multi-state conspiracy. He pleaded guilty in December 2024 to conspiring to commit wire fraud and tax crimes and admitted responsibility for at least $14 million involved in the scheme. Based on his plea agreement, Eckerd will be sentenced to 36 to 109 months in prison.

Conspiring with previously convicted and sentenced defendant Jason E. Adkins, 47, of Jackson, Ohio, Eckerd and others orchestrated a $50 million Ponzi scheme that defrauded more than 50 investors.

From 2012 until at least in or around late 2018, Eckerd represented himself to potential investors as an entrepreneur and businessman with expertise in the market for off-the-road tires. Off-the-road tires are over-sized tires that are used on earth moving equipment and/or mining equipment. Eckerd had control of or access to many corporations allegedly used as part of the scheme.

Co-conspirators solicited millions of dollars from investor-victims under false pretenses. Investors were told their money would be used to buy off-the-road tires at a steep discount, and that the tires would then be re-sold to a buyer at a much higher rate. Investors were promised a high percent rate of return on investment, generally within 180 days.

Defendants rarely bought or sold tires, and when they did, they used the same tires as the basis for multiple deals, promising multiple investors that they each owned the same tires.

Defendants corresponded with the potential investors face-to-face, as well as through a combination of phone calls, text messages, and, on occasion, emails. They used private planes to showcase their inventory and appear wealthy and successful. Defendants also provided investors with elaborate, fraudulent paperwork regarding the purported deals. The co-conspirators requested large investments and loans, most to be funded through wire transfers.

To give potential investors confidence in the tire deals, Eckerd and Adkins offered the services of a purportedly neutral third party to arrange shipment of the tires and/or hold investment funds in escrow until certain conditions were met in completing the deal. Neidik allowed Eckerd and Adkins to represent to investors that he was the neutral third party, and on some occasions, entered into escrow agreements with the investors.

As part of his sentence, Neidik will pay $370,000 in restitution for his part of the scheme. He was also fined $250,000.

Kelly A. Norris, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio; Karen Wingerd, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Criminal Investigation; and Elena Iatarola, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Cincinnati Division; announced the sentence imposed today by U.S. District Judge Algenon L. Marbley. Assistant United States Attorneys S. Courter Shimeall, Peter K. Glenn-Applegate and David J. Twombly are representing the United States in this case.

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Source: US FBI

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A previously convicted sex offender who sexually exploited two minor females and forced one of the girls to engage in commercial sex acts with men at hotels pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court today. 

Anthony Sims, 56, of Columbus, was scheduled to begin trial on March 17. He pleaded guilty today to two counts of sexually exploiting a minor and one count of sex trafficking a minor.

The guilty plea includes a sentencing recommendation of 25 to 50 years in prison.

Sims admitted that he raped a 12-year-old girl 40 to 50 times over the span of six months in 2020. Sims provided the girl marijuana and alcohol and talked her into getting high and drinking. At times, during the sexual assaults, Sims would hold down the victim’s arms or hold her in place. He also forced the girl to pose for photos in sexual positions either while nude or while wearing lingerie.

Likewise, Sims convinced another, a 13-year-old girl, to smoke marijuana with him, and once she was high, Sims raped her. He also held down this victim. Sims would take nude photos of her and made her pose with stuffed animals or pillows.

Sims also took the 13-year-old to various hotels to force her to have sex with men who paid Sims. The victim was forced to have sex with approximately 50 different men. Sims sold pornographic photos of the victim and coordinated the dates at the hotels.

At the time of his most recent crimes, Sims was a registered sex offender with two convictions out of Michigan.

Kelly A. Norris, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio; Elena Iatarola, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Cincinnati Division; Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost’s Ohio Organized Crime Investigations Commission’s Central Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations (BCI); and Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant announced the guilty plea entered today before U.S. District Judge Edmund A. Sargus, Jr. Assistant United States Attorneys Emily Czerniejewski and Tyler J. Aagard are representing the United States in this case.

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Source: US FBI

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Two Columbus men were sentenced in U.S. District Court today to 25years and 23 years in prison for drug crimes, sex trafficking crimes and their roles in the deaths of a local man and woman. The defendants are two of nearly two dozen individuals charged in a case involving large-scale drug and human trafficking rings, the overdose death of at least one individual and the violent death of a second victim.

Dustin A. Speakman, 35, of Columbus, was sentenced to 276 months in prison. He pleaded guilty in March 2024 to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute controlled substances within 1,000 of an elementary school. As part of his plea, Speakman admitted to his role in the violent death of one victim that occurred during the time he was operating a drug distribution house.

Tyler Bourdo, 31, of Columbus, was sentenced to 300 months in prison. He also pleaded guilty in March 2024 to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute controlled substances within 1,000 of an elementary school, as well as distributing fentanyl and cocaine that resulted in death and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking.

Speakman and Bourdo are two of 23 defendants charged in a narcotics and human trafficking case that involves at least two deaths. Two of the defendants were found guilty following a jury trial last month. All 23 defendants have been convicted or pleaded guilty.

According to court documents, from 2008 until June 2022, lead defendants Patrick Saultz and Cordell Washington ran a large-scale drug trafficking organization in Columbus that included sex trafficking, labor trafficking and money laundering.

Court documents detail that the drug trafficking organization brought large quantities of fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, crack cocaine, methamphetamine, oxycodone, alprazolam and marijuana into Columbus. These drugs were sold or used to coerce individuals into sexual activity for some members of the drug ring and their profit.

Speakman joined the drug trafficking organization after being released from jail in 2022, where he was housed with Saultz. Speakman was a mid-level drug distributor for the group out of residences on South Ogden and South Warren.

As part of his guilty plea, Speakman admitted to severely beating one of his drug runners in May 2022 and then providing him with free drugs to make up for the attack. Witnesses said the male was beaten by Speakman and then given cocaine and fentanyl as compensation. Shortly after, the victim began to seize and foam at the mouth and did not respond to Narcan. The victim was driven to an alley near Grant Hospital where he was found unconscious by Columbus Fire Department personnel with severe trauma to the face and head. His cause of death was ultimately determined to be blunt force trauma caused by Speakman.

Bourdo supplied and oversaw the drug distribution at one of the stash houses on North Warren. He was providing the property’s owners approximately $100 in illegal narcotics per day for use of the residence.

According to Bourdo’s plea agreement, on Oct. 14, 2021, an individual was found deceased in an alley between Bourdo’s primary residence and a drug distribution house. The woman was found with a needle in her hand and another needle in her pocket and had been dead for approximately 18 hours.

Further investigation revealed that, on Oct. 10, 2021, the woman had overdosed on crack cocaine and fentanyl at one of the organization’s drug houses that Bourdo supplied on North Warren. Witnesses on site immediately placed the woman in a bathtub and soaked her in cold water. The witnesses provided multiple rounds of Narcan, CPR and chest compressions, eventually resuscitating her. The woman left and, over the next 48 hours, met up with Bourdo on more than one occasion to get and use more drugs.

Video surveillance of the alley shows Bourdo walking to the deceased woman’s body just moments before police personnel arrived to attempt (unsuccessfully) to obtain her phone to prevent further investigation into her death.

As part of his plea, Bourdo admitted to coercing adult drug-addicted females into performing commercial sex acts by using violence as well as providing and then withholding or threatening to withhold narcotics and lodging.

Acting U.S. Attorney Kelly A. Norris commended the investigation coordinated by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost’s Ohio Organized Crime Investigations Commission Central Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force, which includes Columbus Division of Police Chief Elaine Bryant; Jared Murphey , Acting Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Detroit; and Andrew Lawton, Acting Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Other agencies that have assisted the task force with the investigation include the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, HIDTA Task Force, IRS-Criminal Investigation, FBI, Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations (BCI), Ohio National Guard Counter Drug Task Force, Pickerington Police Department, New Albany Police Department, and the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office SWAT Team.

Assistant United States Attorneys Timothy Prichard and Emily Czerniejewski are representing the United States in this case.

This investigation is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach. More information about OCDETF can be found at https://www.justice.gov/OCDETF.

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Source: US FBI

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Jacob M. Rager, 21, of Columbus, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to sextorting at least two female victims and possessing child pornography. 

According to court documents, in April 2023, one of Rager’s victims contacted the FBI National Threat Operations Center to report the distribution of nude photos of her at age 17. The female had communicated with Rager on Instagram and sent nude photos of herself to Rager on two occasions in February and November 2022, including once for a $15 payment.

In March 2023, Rager told the victim to send another nude photo of herself or he would send the prior photos of her to her friends. The victim did not comply, and Rager sent the nude images to a high school friend of the victim.

In October 2023, Rager sent messages to the victim via a TikTok account saying, “I have your nudes still. Reply unless you want me to expose you to everyone you know…”

During the course of their investigation, FBI agents became aware of a second victim whose nude images were also distributed to various individuals by Rager.

Rager sent the second victim a link on her Instagram account in October 2023 that connected to a mega site containing 70 folders. The folders were named after girls who attended Ohio University, including a folder of the victim. The images of videos of the females appeared to have been saved from the Snapchat account of each person.

Further, Rager created an Instagram account titled with the full name of the second victim and ending with the word “destruction.” He messaged the victim from this account saying, “i have your nudes still. unless you want me to show your friends, family and both your brothers i suggest you reply. im gonna make an example out of you if you don’t reply.”

Even after being contacted by the FBI and learning of the federal investigation pending against him, Rager continued to contact the second victim from various accounts on TikTok and Instagram.

When agents searched his cell phone, they discovered Rager possessed other child pornography of females ages approximately 10 to 15 years old. The images included minor females inserting objects like bottles and brushes into their vaginas.

Possessing child pornography is a federal crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison and using interstate communications to extort carries a potential maximum sentence of up to two years in prison. Congress sets minimum and maximum statutory sentences. Sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the Court based on the advisory sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors at a future hearing.

Kelly A. Norris, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, and Elena Iatarola, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Cincinnati Division, and other members of the FBI’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force announced the guilty plea entered today before U.S. District Judge Algenon L. Marbley. Assistant United States Attorney Emily Czerniejewski is representing the United States in this case.

Source: US FBI

CINCINNATI – Flighttime Enterprises, Inc., an American subsidiary of a Russian aircraft parts supplier, along with three of its current and former employees, have been charged federally with crimes related to a scheme to illegally export aircraft parts and components from the United States to Russia and Russian airline companies without the required licenses from the Department of Commerce.  

“We will not tolerate export violations or smuggling of items contrary to U.S. laws to any part of the world, Russia included,” said U.S. Attorney Kenneth L. Parker. “These illicit activities are extremely harmful to our country, regardless of the item that is smuggled.  I am confident in the prosecution bringing accountability to the individuals named in the indictment on behalf of the people of the Southern District of Ohio – but even greater, on behalf of our nation.”

The three individuals charged include Daniela Friery, 43, a naturalized U.S. citizen residing in Loveland, Ohio; Pavil Iglin, 46, a citizen of Russia who currently resides in Florida pursuant to a non-immigrant visa; and Marat Aysin, 39, a legal permanent resident of the United States who currently resides in Florida.

According to the 11-count indictment unsealed today, the three defendants worked for Flighttime Enterprises, Inc., an aircraft equipment supplier with office locations near West Chester, Ohio, and Miami, Florida.

As alleged in the indictment, following Russia’s further invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Flighttime and the individual defendants knowingly and willfully violated and evaded export restrictions imposed on Russia to ship aviation parts to Russia and Russian end users, including airlines subject to Department of Commerce Temporary Denial Orders, by mislabeling shipments, providing false certifications, and using intermediary companies and countries to obscure the true end destination and end users. The indictment details four specific export transactions totaling more than $2 million.

For example, in June 2022, Flighttime employees allegedly negotiated the purchase of an auxiliary power unit from an American supplier for $395,000. The U.S. supplier initially expressed hesitation about the transaction due to the company’s connections to Russia. In connection with the purchase, Aysin falsely told the American supplier that the part would be used to replenish stock in West Chester. Through Aysin, Iglin allegedly signed and dated a Russia end-user certificate with the supplier falsely certifying that the part would not be exported to Russia. The part was thereafter illegally exported to Russia for a Russian aviation company without the required license.

The company and three defendants are each charged with one count of conspiring to violate the Export Control Reform Act (ECRA), and multiple counts of violating the ECRA, which are federal crimes punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

They are also charged with conspiracy to commit smuggling, which carries a potential penalty of up to five years in prison, and multiple counts of smuggling, which carry potential penalties of up to 10 years in prison.

Finally, they are each charged with one count of conspiring to launder monetary instruments, a federal crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Kenneth L. Parker, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio; Sue Bai, head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division; Elena Iatarola, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Cincinnati Division; and Jeffrey Levine, Special Agent in Charge, Washington Field Office, Office of Export Enforcement (BIS) announced the charges. Assistant United States Attorney Timothy S. Mangan is representing the United States in this case, along with Trial Attorneys Maria Fedor and Menno Goedman from the Department of Justice’s National Security Division Counterintelligence and Export Control Section.

An indictment merely contains allegations, and defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.

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