Members of the Columbiana County Drug Task Force prepare to make entry into a suspected drug house located at 629 Minerva St. (Photo courtesy of Police Chief John Lane, East Liverpool Police Department)

EAST LIVERPOOL –The Columbiana County Drug Task Force (DTF) made a suspected drug bust early Thursday morning in East Liverpool.

The bust at 629 Minerva St., a house owned Krista Rogers, was the third one made by DTF in two weeks and right-next-door to a drug bust they conducted on Sept. 6. Prior to that, that made one on Ravine Street on Sept. 4.

DTF Director, Det. Jessie Smith, Columbiana County Office, said that those two were run-of-the mill where they found smaller levels of trafficking amounts of suspected drugs and drug paraphernalia that was consistent with drug trafficking.

“Our presence in East Liverpool has grown significantly over the past year and we are planning to continue to hit the area as hard as we can,” Smith said.

When DTF entered the house, at 629 Minerva St., they found three suspects, two females, including a female resident, who may be facing possible charges in the future, and a male identified as Khbair Tisdale –who had two outstanding warrants one in Columbiana County and one in Portage County. Tisdale is facing potential charges based on what the DTF recovered from the residence. Tisdale was arrested for a failure to appear warrant.

Smith noted pending results of testing from BCI Lab that the two females might not be as involved as Tisdale and that Tisdale was more of a suspect then the females.

DTF officers located and confiscated trafficking amounts of power fentanyl, fentanyl pills, methamphetamine, cocaine, psilocybin mushrooms, numerous kinds of prescription pills and drug paraphernalia that is consistent with drug trafficking.

“We didn’t find a massive amount of each drug, but we found a fair amount of a ton of different kinds of drugs,” Smith said.

Smith noted that none of this is confirmed. The total weight and drug content are yet to be determined from the state lab. Everything was sent to the state BCI lab which will get back to the DTF.

“All the drugs we found are suspected to be those items and that is to be confirmed through the state lab,” Smith said.

Smith anticipates charges being filed for drug possession and drug trafficking once the results come back from the lab.