On Friday, March 31st 2017, Whitehall Police recovered a shipment of 5 kilos (5000 grams) of cocaine sent from a Mexican drug cartel via a delivery runner out of Texas. Joel Ramirez Garza, age 33, from Houston Texas, was arrested by Whitehall Drug Unit Detectives in the area of E. Broad St and Chris Perry Lane, as the drugs were bound for the City of Whitehall. Garza had the drugs concealed in the rear of the rental car he was driving. He was taken into custody without incident when he stopped at a local restaurant.
This was part of an ongoing investigation by Whitehall Drug Unit Detectives in conjunction with an overall City initiative to make Whitehall a safer place. The street value of the drugs is over $200,000 and twice that when broken down to individual unit doses.
Garza has been charged with one felony count of Possession of Drugs (cocaine), a felony of the first degree.
“The Chief’s office is extremely proud of the work our Drug Unit has accomplished in a short amount of time. We could not do this without the support of the community and city administration. The Drug Unit has been focused on users and dealers over the last year and are now turning their focus to those that bring drugs into the City of Whitehall” – Dep. Chief Dan Kelso.
Information released by: Dep. Chief Dan Kelso, daniel.kelso@whitehall-oh.us