Warrants Issued After Meth Traffickers Skip Sentencing

Two convicted meth traffickers facing lengthy prison terms didn’t show up for sentencing in Cuyahoga Common Pleas Court on Thursday.

Arrest warrants were issued for Lisa Gottshalt, 42, and Karl Dlugos, 39, both of North Olmsted, who each pleaded guilty to possession of chemicals used to manufacture controlled substances and drug trafficking last month.

Gottshalt also pleaded guilty to charges of attempted illegal manufacture of drugs and child endangering. Children were present when Lakewood police home searched their Mastick Road in March.

Dlugos faced up to 10 years in prison, while Gottshalt faced up to 15-and-a-half years.

Before the trials for two suspected meth dealers could begin last month, both of them pleaded guilty in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court.

A Lakewood Police Department investigation into a drug trafficking ring ended in March with the arrest of three North Olmsted residents, accused of selling methamphetamine and other drugs from their home.

A third man, Robert Goines, 38, pleaded guilty in September to manufacturing and cultivating marijuana, and two counts of drug trafficking.

He was sentenced to four years in prison.

Lakewood police carried out the investigation, because “the case originated here,” said Det. Amelio Leanza, declining to comment further. 

The drug-trafficking investigation began in February 2012.

According to the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office, the March 28 search warrant yielded the seizure of “numerous drugs” including methamphetamine, cocaine, MDMA, heroin and Adderall.

Police also found what appears to be a meth lab.

Ingredients and materials used in the production of and sale of methamphetamine — including Sudafed, Draino, acetone, lithium and sodium hydroxide — were also found in the Mastick Road home, according to the prosecutor’s office.