Swanton man given up to 7 1/2 years for selling large amount of cocaine

NAPOLEON — A Swanton man with a lengthy criminal record was sentenced here Wednesday in Henry County Common Pleas Court to a prison term on high-level, cocaine-related charges.

Judge Amy Rosebrook sentenced Andrew Moll, 40, to terms totaling five to 7 1/2 years on two counts of trafficking in cocaine, first- and second-degree felonies; and a charge of possession of cocaine, a third-degree felony.

He was given credit for 135 days served in the Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio while his case was pending and Rosebrook ordered that $1,869 in cash seized by authorities be forfeited to the Multi-Area Narcotics Unit. The Defiance-based task force, composed of officers from several area counties, investigated the case and found him in possession of 2-3 ounces of cocaine.

Moll had pleaded guilty to the charges on Aug. 26 when a pre-sentence investigation was ordered. He had been arrested at his place of employment in Napoleon in May following the investigation.

As part of the plea negotiations between Moll’s attorney, Bruce Boerst Jr. of Toledo, and Howe-Gebers’ office, additional charges of aggravated possession of drugs, a second-degree felony, and trafficking in cocaine, a third-degree felony, were dismissed.

The sentence Rosebrook imposed exceeded Howe-Gebers’ recommendation for a five-year term.

While Moll’s attorney told the court that his client had dealt drugs while also fueling his drug addiction, Rosebrook noted that the defendant’s record was “one of the extensive I’ve seen.” Too, she called him a “drug dealer, and a big one,” based on the weights involved.

“You were selling your poison in Henry County and leading others to addiction,” said Rosebrook.

Moll apologized for his actions, and said he knows “my crime was not a victimless crime” while his attorney said the defendant would use the prison time as “an opportunity to truly rehabilitate.”

Before Wednesday’s case was resolved, Moll had several drug-related convictions in Defiance County Common Pleas Court and two in Fulton County Common Pleas Court.

He was sentenced to short prison terms following cocaine trafficking/possession convictions in 2004, 2009 and 2012 in Defiance County, according to court records, and a short prison term in 2016 in Fulton County for a similar offense. He also was convicted of cocaine possession in Fulton County in 2020 and placed on community control.