By Sam Wildow
TROY — The bond for a suspect charged in connection with the 2016 Tipp City large-scale drug operation was set at $500,000 on Friday in Miami County Common Pleas Court.
Ricardo Mondragon, 31, is being held on eight counts of first-degree felony engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, according to Miami County’s online jail records.
An arraignment for Mondragon was set to take place on Friday, but it was rescheduled in order for the court to provide a Spanish interpreter for Mondragon.
Mondragon’s indictment was not available on Friday as he has not yet been arraigned, but the Miami County Sheriff’s Office named Mondragon as a co-conspirator to the 2016 drug operation in a press release in September 2016. His whereabouts were unknown at the time, but he had a previous address in Dayton. According to online jail records, Mondragon was arrested in San Diego, Cali. before being incarcerated in the Miami County Jail this week.
Prosecutors on Friday asked for a high bond for Mondragon, stating Mondragon had given false information to investigators.
According to previous reports, Mondragon was wanted in connection with a large-scale drug operation located in and around Tipp City that the Sheriff’s Office and other local agencies cracked down on in 2016.
The drug activity was a “wholesale” operation, not street level deals, according to the Sheriff’s Office, regarding the importation, distribution, and sale of heroin and methamphetamine within Miami County and the surrounding Miami Valley.
The investigation involved multiple agencies working together and sharing information regarding kilogram quantities of heroin and methamphetamine being smuggled from Mexico into the Miami Valley area to be sold.
According to officials, the investigation started in 2014, when the drugs were initially seized from Tipp City homes.
At a press conference in September 2016, officials displayed 4 kilos of heroin and four bricks of methamphetamine that were seized in the drug bust conducted to the drug bust in Tipp City. The seized drugs had a street value of more than $1 million.
Mondragon’s arraignment was rescheduled for Dec. 7.
