Keith Ricks, the leader of a heroin ring that distributed across Cleveland’s eastside, was sentenced this week to life in prison. “This defendant led a group responsible for thefts, violence and the distribution of dozens of pounds of heroin,” U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach said.

Ricks organized a network that brought heroin into Northeast Ohio from Atlanta. Former Scene writer Doug Brown chronicled the bust in 2013, detailing Ricks’ involvement in Cleveland and elsewhere.

By the time [Ricks’] name landed on a wiretap, he’d been flying regularly (first-class, according to his Twitter account), between Marietta, Georgia, and his mother’s house on East 118th, where he would take care of business locally.

He was the big mind of the group with ideas that went beyond parochial beefs or boundaries. Ricks would organize other east Cleveland dealers to pool their money together for unified, large-scale purchases at wholesale prices down South and then distribute the product back home, dealers free to rake in bigger profits on the street level.

Ricks’ social media accounts played a major role in the investigation. 

This article appears in Sep 9-15, 2015.

Eric Sandy is an award-winning Cleveland-based journalist. For a while, he was the managing editor of Scene. He now contributes jam band features every now and then.

5 replies on “Heroin Ringleader Sentenced to Life in Prison”

  2. U don’t even know wtf going on dude. Screw u fuck boi. Hate when people jump on something talking about yay this yay that. Learn what u Yaying for first.

  3. You know what I hate? When hoodrats jump into comment threads talking shit to other people and they don’t even know how to speak coherent English. Learn to talk and then you can talk shit, gotta learn how to crawl before you can walk.

  4. Selling drugs is wrong yes it is but life though smh and the junkies that he was selling to is going to find a new man and still goina get high. And the ass hole yaying callin him a dirt and happy hes off tge street well what about the many dirtnags he was selling to they are still in the streets gettin high he should never got life

  5. Yes he should’ve got life due to the amount of heroin related deaths since 2000 on the city’s east side, innocent children who are barely able to understand what drugs are at age 3 and 7 years old over people being unsure of who the fuck they are shooting at. This shit is what these little kids are getting killed over here in Cleveland… Heroin dealers are KILLERS period because at some point someone is going to overdose due the distribution of the drug…. Not to mention the rise of hepatitis C cases and the 10,000 new HIV cades per year due to sharing dirty needles… This City NEED to GET IT TOGETHER AS A WHOLE AND STOP THE FUCKING VIOLENCE!!! BABIES ARE DYING FOR NO REASON!!!!!!!!

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