COLUMBUS — A former Ohio State Highway Patrol trooper from Delaware, fired after he was charged in a drug trafficking ring, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy and witness tampering charges.
Federal prosecutors say former State Highway Patrol trooper Jason Delcol and three others pleaded guilty to several charges on Tuesday. The men are four of six who were charged in February 2018 in the drug-trafficking operation, according to the office of U.S. Attorney Benjamin Glassman.
He faces up to 40 years in prison on the drug-trafficking conspiracy charge.
A message seeking comment was left with his attorney.
Prosecutors say Delcol sold illegal drugs, provided an accomplice with a bulletproof vest and lied to police to protect the accomplice.
They say the drugs included testosterone, anabolic steroids, human growth hormone and oxycodone.
Delcol was one of six arrested in the scheme around the city of Delaware. The patrol fired Delcol right after federal authorities revealed the charges in February.
The charges say that Delcol got drugs from fellow defendant Benjamin Owings and provided them to another defendant, Nicholas Glassburn, and in turn got hydrocodone, oxycodone and Xanax from Glassburn and provided them to Owings, much of the time operating from Glassburn’s Rheem Street home, which authorities say is near Conger Elementary School in Delaware.
Authorities say Delcol committed witness tampering in August 2017 by lying to police to help Glassburn avoid arrest.
Police searched found a machine gun and a silencer, neither of which was registered, when they searched Delcol’s home in February.
Delcol pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances within 1,000 feet of a public elementary school, witness tampering and possession of an unregistered machine gun and an unregistered silencer. The conspiracy charge carries a potential maximum of 40 years in prison. Witness tampering is a crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison and possessing an unregistered machine gun and silencer carries a potential maximum prison sentence of 10 years, according to Glassman’s office.
Stevedore Crawford, Jr., Carlos Carvalho and Owings also pleaded guilty Tuesday.