YOUNGSTOWN - A Warren Township man has been charged in federal court with conspiracy to possess or distribute heroin after a package of the drug was intercepted by federal Drug Enforcement Administration members earlier this week.
Cornelius Butler II, 32, of Miller Street S.W., will be held without bail after he waived a detention hearing before Magistrate Judge George Limbert.
His next court appearance is slated for 10 a.m. April 8.
According to an affidavit filed in federal court, investigators with the DEA, with help from the Trumbull County Sheriff's Office, Trumbull Ashtabula Group Law Enforcement Task Force, Warren Police Department and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, have all taken part in the investigation which stretches back to at least September.
In December, investigators secured a federal warrant to listen in on calls between Butler and a pair of brothers who are named in the affidavit but have not yet been charged.
The affidavit lists at least three calls between one of the brothers and Butler, the most recent on Tuesday, where Butler offers to send a ''freak,'' or a drug addict who does chores for dealers in exchange for drugs, to pick up one of the brothers at the Western Reserve Transit Authority station on West Federal Street.
There, agents watched as a package was put in a car driven by a woman that was later stopped by DEA task force officers.
A child about 5 years old was also in the car, the affidavit states.
Inside the trunk agents found two bundles of heroin, the affidavit states. Butler was arrested the next day.