A former Ohio State Highway Patrol trooper from Delaware County has been sentenced to two years in prison for drug trafficking charges.
Jason Delcol, 43, was among the six people named in a federal drug indictment alleging drug dealing, witness tampering, and the selling of a bulletproof vest to a civilian. The indictment said Delcol committed many of his crimes near an elementary school, while in uniform and driving a marked cruiser.
Delcol ultimately pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances within 1,000 feet of a school, witness tampering and possession of an unregistered gun and silencer.
An indictment announced last February said investigators tracked hundreds of text messages that included conversations about human growth hormone, testosterone, Xanax, cocaine and crack cocaine, marijuana, and the painkillers oxycodone and Percocet.
"U just got lucky I saw my buddy last night. And he has those pink things in 20s," Delcol said in a July 2017 text message to a co-defendant, referring to the painkiller oxycodone, according to the federal complaint.
Delcol provided a co-defendant with ballistic vests for protection, and lied to police who found the co-defendant with cocaine during an August 2017 traffic stop, blaming the drugs on the co-defendant's "children who were problems," the complaint said.
Records show Delcol had been fired twice before for drug-related offenses.The patrol terminated him in 2012 and again in 2014 over allegations he violated the agency's policies for reporting use of controlled substances like painkillers. Arbitrators twice ruled to reinstate him.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this story
