Lorain Police Patrol Impact Team seize guns, drugs

LORAIN — Several guns and illegal drugs were seized during a joint Lorain Police Patrol Impact Team and Ohio Investigative Unit operation in mid-November. Patrol Impact Team Lt. Tim Thompson said about 15 PIT officers and another 15 OIU officers, alongside the Cleveland Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent patrolled areas with liquor licenses the night of Nov. 11, netting 10 arrests, including five felony arrests, and three guns and more than 13 grams of suspected crack cocaine seized. The information on the operation was released this week. At about 7:18 p.m. that night, officers were in the parking lot of the Rags Wine and Beverage, 4743 Oberlin Ave., conducting surveillance when they reportedly saw a man leave the store with a gun tucked into the front of his pants inside a holster. Dedrick Montague, 40, was issued a summons for criminal trespass, as it is illegal to carry a firearm inside the liquor store, according to the report. Shortly after 9 p.m. Nov. 11 at the BP gas station on Broadway, officers took Dexter Fields, 34, into custody on possession of drugs and drug paraphernalia charges. Fields had active warrants out for his arrest, according to the police report, and on searching him found he was reportedly attempting to hide a large bag of crack cocaine in his private area. Shortly after 10 p.m. officers saw a black Jeep SUV leaving the Valero on Oberlin Avenue with overly tinted windows. Following a traffic stop, officers recognized the man sitting in the passenger seat as J'Andre Brazile, 19, from previous incidents, including weapons violations and a shots fired call, according to the report. There was no active warrant for Brazile, so he was released to his grandmother and advised further charges could be pending, according to police. During a search of the vehicle, officers found a loaded firearm in the glove box that was not disclosed when the vehicle was pulled over. The woman driving the Jeep, Andrea Woods, 54, was issued a court summons for carrying concealed weapons and a citation for the window tint. Around 10:30 p.m. near Oberlin Avenue and Tower Boulevard, officers initiated a traffic stop on a vehicle for overly tinted windows. The passenger, Paris Kimbrough, 31, was found to have an open container of alcohol in the vehicle. Officers searched the vehicle and located what is believed to be a small rock of crack cocaine under the front passenger seat. Kimbrough was charged with possession of cocaine and open container. Shortly before 11 p.m. at the Sunoco gas station on Oberlin Avenue officers stopped a vehicle for excessive window tint. While talking to the driver, Joseph Huff, 28, officers saw a firearm between the seat and floorboard of the vehicle, and smelled marijuana coming from the vehicle. Huff was charged with carrying concealed weapons, improper handling of a firearm in a motor vehicle, having weapons under disability, possession of marijuana, possession of marijuana paraphernalia and use of sun-screening materials.