Two Michigan men have been indicted on federal drug charges for allegedly bringing heroin to Lorain County from the Detroit area.
Calvin Sims, 19, is charged with distribution of heroin, use of a communication facility – a telephone – to facilitate a drug trafficking offense, possession with intent to distribute heroin and traveling in interstate commerce to facilitate the conspiracy to distribute heroin. Roland Lee Anderson, 44, is charged with possession with intent to distribute heroin and traveling in interstate commerce to facilitate the conspiracy to distribute heroin, according to the indictment.
The pair was arrested by the Ohio Highway Patrol after being stopped on the Ohio Turnpike on July 22 while allegedly driving from Michigan to Amherst to make sell heroin to a confidential informant, according to an affidavit filed in the case by Drug Enforcement Administration Agent James Goodwin.
According to Goodwin, the investigation into Sims began after the Lorain County Drug Task Force arrested a suspect on heroin possession charges on May 24 and the person agreed to work as an informant.
The informant told investigators that Sims would purchase large quantities from a source in Michigan and then bring the drugs to Lorain County for resale. The heroin was normally brought to Lorain County in plastic bags wrapped in a paper towel with mustard or vinegar, Goodwin wrote.
The same day the informant agreed to work with authorities, he – or she – called Sims and said he would be ready the next week and that he could “cruise at 90 mph and we can splash around in the water out here.”
Goodwin said he believes that the speed refers to paying $90 for an ounce of heroin and that “splash around in the water” is a reference to the Kalahari Resort water park in the Sandusky area.
Sims and the informant also agreed to split the cost of a rental car, Goodwin wrote. But Sims was somewhat concerned about making the drive since he had lost $15,400 when he and another person were stopped by police in Taylor, Mich., on April 26, and officers found the money in their car.
But the informant ultimately convinced Sims to drive down from Michigan and on June 3, in the parking lot of the Target store in Amherst, he purchased 35 grams of heroin for $2,300. The deal was originally for only 25 grams, but Sims allegedly advanced the informant some extra heroin, accord-ing to Goodwin’s affidavit.
Investigators then followed Sims and another man he was with to a nearby McDonald’s and fi-nally to a Vine Avenue home in Lorain and began watching that house.
On June 10, Sims told the informant to deposit $850 into his mother’s checking account to pay for the extra heroin he had advanced to the informant a week earlier.
On June 28, investigators recorded another phone call between Sims and the informant in which the informant negotiated a price of $2,300 for 25 grams of heroin – Sims had initially wanted $2,500, Goodwin wrote.
On June 30, Sims drove down from Michigan to meet with the informant in the Target parking lot, but when he arrived he spotted an Amherst police car and asked the informant to meet him inside the store instead.
The informant told investigators that he went inside to meet with Sims and found him in the frozen food aisle, where Sims had hidden the heroin under a bag of frozen chicken. Sims took the informant’s money and the informant then took the heroin back to investigators.
When investigators weighed the heroin, they determined that Sims had actually given the informant about 26 grams of heroin. In a phone call later, Sims told the informant that his supplier may have given him extra because his source thought it was his birthday, Goodwin wrote, although the informant only asked about extra heroin because the digital scale investigators used initially showed that there was 35 grams of heroin.
On July 14, Goodwin wrote, the informant called Sims and asked to purchase 500 grams of heroin for $37,500. The deal was to go down once again at the Target in Amherst on July 22, Goodwin wrote, but investigators later had the informant change the meeting place to Kalahari.
Sims – and Anderson, who was driving the 2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee that troopers stopped – never made it because investigators had them under surveillance and had state troopers intercept them on the Ohio Turnpike.
Troopers found 393.5 grams of heroin hidden behind the Jeep’s glove compartment as well as $3,360 on Anderson, Goodwin wrote.

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