Drug Dealing Cincinnati Daycare Raided – Marijuana And Ammunition Found

Parents of children in a Cincinnati area daycare are left baffled today after the Hamilton County SWAT team moved quickly past a front yard filled with toys to serve a drug search warrant on their child care provider. Lincoln Heights police officers conducted a drug raid on a home which was also used as daycare yesterday. The law enforcement officers were investigating the Behles Avenue home for a month after neighbors complained about the frequent traffic at the home.

Undercover Cincinnati police officers bought approximately a pound of marijuana from the alleged daycare drug den, The Cincinnati Enquirer reports. When Hamilton County SWAT team members raided the alleged drug dealing daycare center during the early morning hours when children were not present, they also found a lot of cash and ammunition. When officers entered the in-home daycare, the child care owner and her toddler and her toddler daughter were sitting on the couch.

The daycare business operator Samona Crooks, 29, was immediately arrested inside the Cincinnati in-home daycare on drug trafficking, permitting drug abuse, drug paraphernalia and drug possession charges, Crooks friend, Roshone Scott, 27, later turned himself into the Lincoln Heights Police Department and was arrested on similar charges, WKRC reports. MSNBC reports that undercover narcotic officers made “numerous” buys from both Crooks and Scott before raiding the Cincinnati area daycare at approximately 1 a.m. on Saturday.

“We take pride in stepping forward and being a voice for the kids, and yesterday was a perfect example of why you can’t sell drugs, and not only selling drugs, but putting kids in harm’s way, or you’re going to go to jail for it,” Lincoln Heights Police Officer Henry Dawkins Jr. told MSNBC.

According to information posted on the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services website, Crooks is licensed to operate a daycare for no more that six children at a time. The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that Crooks daycare certificate expired on June 30.

The alleged drug dealing daycare was located withing a school zone, which caused additional drug trafficking charges to be levied against Crooks and Scott.