The Feds Are Back in Town

That's because it seems as if U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio Steven Dettelbach has taken a special interest in the Mahoning Valley. Maybe he has family here. Maybe he wants to move here. Maybe Mayor Jay Williams and others have raised enough of a racket over the years that the Feds can no longer ignore us.

First, there was the breakup of the dreaded LSP gang thanks to a federal indictment and investigation of the drug dealing group on the South Side. Then, a large drug ring that offered just about any drug imaginable stretching all the way to Mexico is also taken down thanks to a federal investigation.

That is a vast amount of resources to be pouring into our region. It makes me think that Somebody Up There likes us.

I like Dettelbach because he is a realist. At the press conference announcing the indictments of the members of the drug ring, he said he did not expect that to cure the problems of drugs and crime that plauge the area because the demand is always there. Yet he said it was a start and that the effort needs to keep being made.

I know people like Dettelbach are political appointees, and if I was Williams or another local pol, I would lobby long and hard that he stays. No one has paid us this much attention in years and who knows if anyone else would duplicate the effort.