Sgt. Brandon Lacy from the Warren County Drug Task Force called the one kilo, or 2.2 pounds of fentanyl, “very, very substantial.” He said the average dose of fentanyl is one-tenth of one gram, and there are 1,000 grams in a kilogram.
Those arrested were Estavian Glenn, 23, of Middletown, charged with drug trafficking, a first-degree felony; Dalaquan Wright, 22, of Middletown, charged with drug trafficking, a first-degree felony; and McKinnah Sparks, 22, of Middletown, charged with permitting drug abuse, a fifth-degree felony.
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Wright played football and basketball and ran track for the Middies and was named the school’s Homecoming King in 2014, according to Journal-News archives. He and Sparks graduated from MHS in 2015, according to the district.
Middletown Police Chief Rodney Muterspaw wrote on the department’s Facebook page that while police are thankful to get dealers off the street, they take “no joy in watching a young person fall into this drug game.”
That illegal activity “costs them almost everything. Families are devastated on both sides. Parents and grandparents are just crushed. Futures are changed forever,” wrote Muterspaw, whose two children graduated from MHS.
“We have known some of these young people since they were little kids. We have officers who worked with or coached these kids at a young age and then to see them do this is hard to accept. It is hard for me to watch.
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“Yes, we know they must face the law, the court and the sentence they have coming to them, but to see young people that once had bright and promising futures give it all up for an easy dollar is sad, very sad.”
Lacy applauded his agency, Middletown’s Police Specials Operations Team, Ohio State Highway Patrol, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the FBI for working together to combat drugs in the region.
“We have to use all of our resources,” he said. “Middletown drugs come into Warren County and Warren County drugs go to Middletown.”
Muterspaw said the three people were arrested for “major drug trafficking” in the Middletown and Warren County areas. Besides the drugs, several guns, including some stolen, were seized, police said.
He said working with area agencies is “key for us to fight” these fentanyl/heroin/methamphetamine drug dealers.
“Drug trafficking is not jurisdiction-specific, so we can’t be limited in the fight,” he wrote. “We reach out for help constantly with everything we have to make this place is better. It is working for us and like we have told you, at any given time, you may have three different drug units working our city.”
Muterspaw and Lacy said the investigation is ongoing with possibly more arrests expected in the near future.
Glenn and Wright, both Warren County Jail inmates, are scheduled for their preliminary hearings at 3 p.m. Thursday in Warren County Court, according to court records. Bond was set at $200,000 at their arraignments. They both were arrested in Warren County during traffic stops, Lacy said.
“A stroke of good luck,” he said. “Sometimes you need that in these big cases.”
Sparks is scheduled to appear at 1:30 p.m. Monday for her preliminary hearing.
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