Two downtown Cincinnati businesses are allegedly connected to a massive federal drug sting that included 37 arrests, large amounts of narcotics and millions of dollars in asset seizures, an unsealed federal indictment reveals.
The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio’s office says that Tri-State Jewelers’ Race Street storefront was used to hold $2.5 million associated with drug smuggling between December last year and April this year. Another $800,000 was laundered at Nationwide Automotive on Vine Street, officials say.
Vyacheslav Minyalo is the incorporator of both of those businesses and was indicted along with a number of others for conspiracy to traffic narcotics and launder money.
The Nov. 14 raids by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the U.S. Marshals Service and Homeland Security Investigations netted 22 Cincinnatians plus suspects from Chicago, Mexico and Wisconsin as well as more than $500,000, 100 pounds of cocaine, 42 pounds of meth, 19 pounds of fentanyl, three pounds of heroin, 47 firearms, 12 vehicles, the inventory of the jewelry store and four properties in Greater Cincinnati and Georgia.
The DEA’s task force was made up of a number of local law enforcement agencies.
The indictment contains 15 counts punishable by up to 20 years in prison each.
This article appears in Nov 13-26, 2019.
