Crescent-News.com - Man convicted of drug trafficking in two counties gets eight-year prison term

By TODD HELBERG

Separate drug trafficking cases against a Wauseon man added up to an eight-year prison term when he was sentenced Tuesday in two area courts.

Larry Moreno, 30, was given an eight-year sentence on two counts of trafficking in marijuana, second- and third-degree felonies, in Defiance County Common Pleas Court by visiting Judge Randall Basinger of Putnam County. (Basinger replaced Judge Joseph Schmenk who withdrew from the case.)

Later in the afternoon, Moreno was sentenced to another eight-year term by Basinger in Putnam County Common Pleas Court for trafficking in cocaine, a second-degree felony. But Basinger made that sentence concurrent with the Defiance County sentence.

The judge also ordered that Moreno make $17,000 in restitution for the drug transactions to undercover informants in both counties. Moreno was given 241 days credit for time served in jail while the cases were pending.

He had previously entered guilty pleas to the charges.

All were a result of an investigation by the Multi-Area Narcotics Unit, composed of officers from Defiance and several surrounding jurisdictions.

The Defiance County charges stated that Moreno and two co-defendants sold five pounds and six pounds of marijuana on two separate occasions. Because more than one individual and one incident was involved, authorities filed a charge of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity.

The Putnam County charge stated that he sold nine ounces of cocaine.

During sentencing in Defiance County, Moreno and his attorney, Tennille Newton of Archbold, told Basinger that he was hoping to attend classes in prison so he could help his family upon being released.

Newton asked for leniency, claiming that if he received a prison term over four years this opportunity would not be available to her client.

"He wants to educate himself and wants to do whatever he can to rehabilitate himself ...," Newton said.

But Basinger noted that Moreno had a good-paying job and still chose to sell "significant" amounts of drugs. Moreno said when he was laid off from work he went in a "different direction."

Too, Basinger said one of the drug transactions occurred in front of his child, who is now 31/2 years old. And, he made mention of Moreno's record that included more than a dozen misdemeanor convictions from 1997-2006.

Basinger said he was basing the prison term "in part" on a review of similar cases with which he's been involved.

Assistant county prosecutor Carson Slade handled the state's case in Defiance County, but did not make a statement during the hearing.

MAN Unit director Doug Engel said after Tuesday's hearings that Moreno was a "major player" in the drug trafficking trade.

"I'm happy with the job the agents did," he said. "This was a major drug organization. They were providing all of northwest Ohio. We can definitely show that."

Moreno could have been sentenced up to 23 years imprisonment in Defiance County and eight more years in Putnam County.