Columbus police officer charged with federal drug crimes, money laundering to be held in custody
One of the two Columbus police officers who was arrested last week on federal drug trafficking charges and money laundering will remain in custody until his next court appearance.
Officer Joel M. Mefford, 34, waived his detention hearing scheduled Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Columbus, according to federal records. He will next appear in court for his arraignment on Thursday.
Mefford, who joined the Columbus Division of Police in June 2011, is charged with possession of five kilograms or more of cocaine and possession with intent to distribute. He is also facing two additional counts of cocaine possession with intent to distribute 500 grams or more and money laundering.
He is currently being held at the Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio near Stryker, Williams County, about 55 miles southwest of Toledo.
Officef John Castillo, 31, who joined the police division in June 2019, is also charged with possession of five kilograms or more of cocaine and possession with intent to distribute. Castillo waived his initial detention hearing in U.S District Court on Feb. 5, and is scheduled for arraignment on Feb. 14, though he could waive that hearing. It was not clear Tuesday what jail Castillo was being held in.
Columbus police said both officers have been suspended with pay pending an internal investigation into the federal accusations and activity. Castillo and Mefford were arrested on Feb. 1 in connection with an ongoing federal investigation into the actions of Columbus police narcotics detectives who were also charged with drug possession and trafficking after they sold the drugs to confidential informants.
Officers stole kilo of cocaine from garage
According to his federal indictment, Mefford and another officer, who is not named, were investigating drug crimes on Feb. 5, 2020, at a detached garage that belonged to a suspect in the investigation and planned to execute a search warrant there the next morning. But an employee at the unnamed apartment complex where the garage was located gave both officers access to the garage, and they illegally searched it, the indictment states.
Mefford and the other officer removed two kilos of cocaine in the garage rafters, took one of the kilos, and left the other kilo for officers to discover during the planned Feb. 6 raid, according to the indictment.
On March 7, 2020, Mefford was again investigating a drug trafficking operation with an unnamed officer at houses on Ambleside Drive and Kilbourne Avenue in Columbus. The indictment states that Mefford and the other officer approached a suspect in their investigation, who is only identified in the indictment as "Person B," at an unnamed gas station.
Person B told the officers that there was cocaine in the house on Ambleside Drive, and the two officers, along with Person B, went to the house on Ambleside, where they met another individual identified only as "Person C."
Mefford and the other officer seized a bag with multiple kilos of cocaine from Person C and, at some point, arrested that person, according to the indictment.
Cocaine stolen from police property room, replaced with fake cocaine
Mefford is also accused in the indictment of working with the other, unidentified officer in April 2020 to steal 20 kilograms of cocaine from the Columbus police evidence room, replacing it with fake cocaine.
According to the indictment, Mefford and the other officer entered the police property room with a black case full of fake cocaine. The two officers are then accused of swapping the 20 kilos of real cocaine that had been seized in a previous drug bust with fake cocaine.
Mefford and the other officer left in their police cruisers and later rendezvoused at Nationwide Children's Hospital, where Mefford gave the stolen cocaine to the other police officer, according to the indictment. That officer then gave the cocaine to unnamed "Person D" to sell, the indictment states.
Mefford deposited $72,015 in proceeds from drug trafficking into his personal JP Morgan Chase bank account, the indictment alleges, leading to the money laundering charge.
Other officer planted cocaine in house for police to find
According to his separate indictment, Castillo was investigating a drug trafficking operation on Feb. 3, 2021, when Castillo and the unnamed officer conducted a traffic stop on a male suspect identified only as "Person A" after Castillo saw him and his wife, Person B, picking up a bag with cash at an unidentified local business on Lockbourne Road.
Castillo and the other officer allegedly found out that Person A gave Person C several kilos of cocaine to hold for him, according to the indictment. Castillo, the other officer and Person A went to the latter's home on North Everett Avenue. Using an access code given to them by Person A, Castillo and the other officer planted two kilos of cocaine under the basement stairs inside the home while Person A waited outside, the indictment states.
Previously, former Columbus police officers John Kotchkoski and Marco Merino had been arrested for trafficking fentanyl and accepting money to protect drug shipments. Both Kotchkoski and Merino later entered guilty pleas in federal court.
Merino was sentenced to nine years in federal prison. Kotchkoski is currently scheduled to be sentenced in May.
@ShahidMeighan
smeighan@dispatch.com
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus police officer charged in federal drug crime to he be held
