It’s a plot straight out of a movie. But this time, the main character is accused of spending more than seven years running a very real international drug operation — while incarcerated in the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown. Brian Lumbus Jr., 43, of Cleveland, had help from Giancarlo Miserotti, 51, an Italian resident and citizen, according to U.S. Attorney Rebecca Lutzko.
Lumbus is among 11 people charged by federal authorities for smuggling opioids including fentanyl and other substances from foreign countries, through Italy, for sale in the U.S.
“From the confines of the Ohio Penitentiary, Brian Lumbus led an international and interstate drug trafficking organization that brought fentanyl and other, more potent synthetic drugs from overseas factories to the streets of our region. Several others, both in the United States and outside it, acted in concert with Lumbus to do what he physically could not: obtain, assemble and repackage those drugs, then mail or deliver them to other conspirators for further distribution,” Lutzko said.
“As this indictment reflects, the United States Attorney’s Office will continue its collaborative efforts with federal, state, local and international partners to identify, target and dismantle drug- trafficking organizations, whether the suppliers of such poisons are in the Northern District of Ohio or a continent away.”
According to a news release from Lutzko’s office, state corrections workers did eventually uncover the plot and report it to the Ohio State Highway Patrol and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. That is good to know, and those who finally did the right thing are to be commended.
But it begs the question, how on earth did such an operation go undetected for more than seven years? Surely part of the federal investigation will be to determine whether anyone working within the penitentiary is at fault, either through simple negligence of duty or more active assistance.
Should state officials determine Lumbus was, indeed, just doing an excellent job of keeping such an operation under wraps, priority No. 1 must be to figure out how he did it and how to teach future corrections workers to spot and stop it.
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