In conjunction with its annual meeting, METRICH Enforcement Unit celebrated its 27th year as a task force at the Holiday Inn on Wednesday afternoon.
METRICH Project Director, Chief Dino Sgambellone, gave some insight into the organization’s vision. “Our focus has always been to reduce the availability of drugs and weapons throughout our communities, while trying to improve the quality of life for our citizens, to be responsive to their needs, and to work closely with the community as we continue to fight this battle against drugs and weapons,” he said.
He noted that of the illegal drugs used, heroin and pharmaceutical drugs are most seriously affecting communities in this region.
Already this year, the METRICH region has had 1040.79 grams of heroin removals along with 70 pharmaceutical cases.
US Attorney Steven Dettelbach explained, “We’re working with the state and local enforcement agencies on case after case after case involving drug trafficking organizations and heroin. And we’re not only working on cases together, but we’re working on things that attack the problem more fundamentally in addition to trying to arrest the bad guys—things like prevention and education.”
“Because we recognize that it is unacceptable for every single day for five Ohioans to die of a heroin overdose,” he added.
He noted on Nov. 21, the United States Attorney’s Office, the Cleveland Clinic, and other leaders will conduct a regional summit on the law enforcement, medical, and community issues surrounding heroin use.
Dettelbach insisted that partnerships among each level of law enforcement must be maintained in order to have healthy and effective communities. “The days are past when the partnership between federal, state, and local law enforcement officers is anything but critical and essential to the functioning of law enforcement. The work that we do together is no longer something that is optional; it is something that if we don’t do it, then we are failing in our jobs.”
“In every single area of enforcement that we talk about, whether it’s drugs, guns, human trafficking, theft—with all those kinds of things, we’re working together on a daily basis,” added Dettelbach.
Also noted at the meeting, Dawn Brown of the Richland County Sheriff’s Office is retiring.
Chief Sgambellone stated, “She was an instrumental part in the development of the task force in those early years and was a contact resource for other agencies.”
Chief Sgambellone is also looking at retirement and stated that he will likely retire in mid-November.
Facing the crowd he said, “I wanted to thank this group for all of your support and help. The collaborating, hard work, and dedication have been outstanding and I have complete confidence in Ken Coontz who would be my replacement for the project director’s position. He is both capable and informed about our process.”
METRICH is the largest decentralized task force in Ohio, with its ten-county affiliation. It began in 1986 and there are over 600,000 residents in the METRICH region. As stated on the METRICH website, this task force aims at improving the quality of life for citizens of the METRICH region by reducing the availability of illegal drugs and weapons through community partnerships and by promoting safe and secure neighborhoods.
“Our focus has always been to reduce the availability of drugs and weapons throughout our communities, while trying to improve the quality of life for our citizens, to be responsive to their needs, and to work closely with the community as we continue to fight this battle against drugs and weapons,” said Mansfield Police Chief Dino Sgambellone.
