By Marci Piltz
Record-Courier staff writer
ALLIANCE -- Four Portage County residents were among six people arrested in connection with a suspected methamphetamine ring operating between the Stark County city and Atwater in Portage County.
Capt. Scott Griffith, special operations commander of the Alliance Police Department, and Portage County Sheriff Duane Kaley said the arrests stemmed from a joint investigation which discovered a meth lab in an Alliance apartment Thursday.
Arrested in connection with the case were John P. Thomas, 22, of Atwater; Tom McCambridge, 23, of 760 Industry Road, Atwater; Allaura Massrock, 22, of 1879 Mahoning Road, Deerfield; Adam Pifer, of 832 Porter Road, Atwater; Eric McCambridge, 22, of Alliance; and Elias Gabler, 22, of Alliance.
According to Kaley, agents from the Portage County Drug Task Force had received information about a possible methamphetamine ring operating between an Atwater residence and a residence in the 200 block of North Union Avenue in Alliance.
Agents had been conducting surveillance at the Atwater residence, Kaley said, when more information was received indicating a group of suspects involved in the alleged meth ring would be going to an Alliance apartment on Thursday.
Kaley said the task force agents began working with Alliance police, and set up surveillance outside the North Union Avenue apartment, where Eric McCambridge resides.
"We were sitting there waiting for them with Alliance police when they showed up," Kaley said of the suspects.
Police searched the upstairs apartment and located a working meth lab inside a large closet, Griffith said. He said police believe Thomas was at the head of the alleged ring and worked with the others to obtain supplies for cooking methamphetamine.
Thomas was arrested on a charge of illegal manufacturing of methamphetamine, a second-degree felony, as well as two outstanding warrants through Alliance Municipal Court for failure to appear on two prior drug charges.
Tom McCambridge also was charged with illegal manufacturing of methamphetamine while Eric McCambridge and Pifer were charged with complicity to illegal manufacturing of methamphetamine, also second-degree felonies.
Two visitors to the apartment, Massrock and Gabler, each were charged with one count of being present in a place where a controlled substance is being used and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Kaley said Thursday information from the task force would be forwarded to the Portage County Prosecutor's Office for consideration of charges in Portage County.
The Portage County Drug Task Force consists of the Portage County Sheriff's Office, the Portage County Prosecutor's Office, and officers from the Aurora, Brimfield, Kent, Ravenna and Streetsboro police departments.