Lima woman sentenced to four years in drug trafficking case

LIMA — A Lima woman pleaded guilty Wednesday to one charge, and a judge sentenced her to a minimum of four years in prison after previously facing more than four dozen felony charges related to the trafficking of heroin and fentanyl.

Nicoya Darby, 37, pleaded guilty to engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, a first-degree felony, and the rest of the charges and specifications were dismissed in Allen County Common Pleas Court.

The sentence is not mandatory, so Darby will be eligible to apply for judicial release, and the state agreed it would not oppose a judicial release request.

Darby was found to be involved in a drug operation with her boyfriend, Eric Upthegrove Jr., 41, and Ronald Hesseling II, 43. Upthegrove received 28 years in prison, and Hesseling received 54 years in the case.

A series of raids were executed at 765 S. Broadway Ave. and 929 S. Atlantic Ave. in Lima in September 2021 by the West Central Ohio Crime Task Force and the FBI’s North West Ohio Safe Streets Task Force, which resulted in the seizure of narcotics, weapons, currency and drug paraphernalia.

Investigators reported that during the search of both residences, an automatic pill press, a mechanical pill press, thousands of pressed fentanyl pills weighing approximately 11 kilograms, 2.2 kilograms of bricked suspected fentanyl powder, suspected marijuana, suspected THC products, paraphernalia and six guns were discovered, along with $9,988 in U.S. currency and two vehicles.