Federal jury convicts Northeast Side man for drug, sex trafficking,

A Columbus man who federal prosecutors say forced women into prostitution and participated in multiple financial frauds will spend the rest of his life in prison.

On Thursday, a jury convicted 42-year-old Ricco “Roscoe” Maye of the Northeast Side, Thursday of 14 federal charges, including wire fraud, multiple conspiracy charges and fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine trafficking charges. He will be sentenced at a later date but faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison for a charge of selling a controlled substance that resulted in a person’s death.

Maye was also convicted of conspiring to tamper with or intimidate witnesses in his case.

U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio Kenneth Parker said in a statement Maye is a “dangerous man” who forced victims to go along with his criminal schemes with threats of violence and drug withdrawal.

“Maye oversaw a variety of criminal endeavors, victimizing vulnerable populations, causing the death of one addicted person, and obstructing justice in an ill-fated attempt to avoid accountability,” Parker said.

Prosecutors said Maye used a variety of people to buy and sell drugs, keeping the proceeds for himself. He would also sell women for sex.

Maye started operating as a street-level dealer in at least 2018, court records say. He would buy drugs, specifically cocaine, crack cocaine, fentanyl and methamphetamine, from other sources in Ohio and elsewhere and then have people who were struggling with addiction sell the drugs throughout Columbus for him. Maye would receive cash but also took other forms of payment, including social security numbers.

Court records say Maye would give women drugs for free but then would use their addictions to manipulate them into prostitution to pay for the drugs they needed. Maye arranged rides to hotel rooms, gave the women cellphones and then took all the money the women made, punishing those who would question him with beatings and other physical violence.

Court records detail Maye’s “punishments” as involving breaking bones and knocking out teeth.

In November 2018, court records say Maye spoke to a man hours before he fatally overdosed on fentanyl. That man had been a previous customer who bought cocaine. The man had wanted to buy cocaine from Maye on the day he overdosed, court records say, but got fentanyl instead.

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In addition, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Maye filed a fraudulent online application for relief money, pocketing more than $30,000, court records say.

Maye was initially arrested in November 2020 and has remained in federal custody since then. While in custody, prosecutors said he attempted to tamper with witnesses or interfere with the investigation. Court records say this included threatening to kill a prosecution witness by asking someone to mix rat poison with fentanyl and give that to the witness.

Court records also say Maye called other people involved in the case, including potential witnesses, to find out who had talked to police. He also urged people involved in the case to use his Facebook account to contact others and try to prevent them from cooperating with any investigation.

Maye will be formally sentenced at a later date.

bbruner@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Federal jury convicts Columbus man for drug, sex trafficking

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