Cocaine Cops Sentenced to Four Years
Columbus police officers John Castillo and Joel Mefford have been sentenced to four years in prison for illegally seizing cocaine with the intent of selling it. Photo credit: Columbus Police Department.
A federal court sentenced former Columbus police officer Joel Mefford, 35, of London, Ohio, to 50 months in prison on Jan. 8 on money laundering and cocaine charges, according to a DOJ press release.
John Castillo, 32, a former Columbus police officer from Grove City, Ohio, was sentenced on Dec. 11 to 46 months in prison for possessing five kilograms of cocaine with the intent to distribute, according to a second DOJ press release.
Castillo and Mefford investigated drug crimes as part of their duties.
Illegal Seizures, Theft of Evidence
In January and February 2021, Castillo, Mefford and some other officers of the Columbus police conducted an investigation involving drug trafficking, according to the indictment.
On Feb. 3, 2021, a person of interest drove with his wife and children to a business location to pick up money stored in a bag inside a car parked in front of the business, according to the indictment. That same day, a police officer from the Columbus Police conducted a traffic stop of the person’s car where Castillo and fellow police officer Joel Mefford were there for at least a portion of the time.
During the stop, Castillo and Mefford found out that the person of interest had given an acquaintance some cocaine to hold for him, according to the indictment. Castillo, another officer and the person took a car to the person’s house from the site of the traffic stop, and the person called his acquaintance over to bring the cocaine.
When the acquaintance came to the house, they gave the person a bag containing two kilograms of cocaine and a box with ten kilograms of cocaine inside, according to the indictment. Castillo and Mefford put the box of cocaine into their car, but they did not turn the cocaine into evidence.
Entered House Using Alarm Code
Castillo and Mefford entered the person’s house using a code that the person provided, as detailed in the indictment. They disarmed the alarm, and then Castillo and Mefford put the bag with two kilograms of cocaine under the basement stairs before re-arming the alarm. Castillo, the person of interest and Mefford got back in the car and went from the person’s house back to the traffic stop site.
Castillo, the person of interest, the person’s family and multiple other officers all went back to the person’s house from the traffic stop site, and the officers asked for consent to search the house, which the person and his wife granted, according to the indictment. The officers found the bag containing two kilograms of cocaine under the stairs.
The night of Feb. 3, 2021, leading into the morning of Feb. 4, 2021, Castillo and Mefford took the ten-kilogram box of cocaine to Mefford’’s house, then went to the person of interest’s storage unit and illegally seized items from the unit, according to the indictment. Mefford then gave the box of cocaine to his acquaintance to sell.
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