2 Charged in Connection to a Drug Bust in Zanesville

ZANESVILLE, OH – Two people from Zanesville are facing felony drug charges following a massive drug bust.

According to Muskingum County Prosecutor Ron Welch, 39-year-old Codey Starkey and 36-year-old Chiquita Rush were arrested by officers from the CODE Task Force, the Zanesville-Muskingum County Joint Drug Unit, the Muskingum County Sheriff’s Office, and the Zanesville Police Department.

Welch said the two are facing major drug offender charges for trafficking in fentanyl, cocaine, and methamphetamine.

He said they are also facing lesser charges for trafficking marijuana, psilocybin mushrooms, and MDMA, which is more commonly known as ecstasy. All of these charges carry with them firearm specifications due to the multiple firearms that were found throughout the pairs home

Welch said they are also charged with having weapons under disability from previous drug convictions.

“There’s also a charge of the illegal manufacturing of drugs to go along with this.” Welch said. “It involved the cutting and preparation of drugs for purposes of sale. The street value of the narcotics that were recovered is somewhere between $700,000 and $1 Million.”

Zanesville Chief of Police, Scott Comstock, said the bust happened at 739 Homewood Ave. a residential area on the Southwest side of the City. He also said it felt good to be able to get these drugs off the street.

“Looking at what’s in front of us and the fact that it was recovered from a residential area in the City, it’s a huge impact to the safety of the community.” Comstock said. “It’s an eye opener to what’s out there and on the streets. This isn’t our average daily operation.”

Muskingum County Sheriff, Matt Lutz, talked about the partnerships they have that help keep drugs like these off the streets.

“When you’re looking at this type of amount of drugs, this is not your normal amount of what we normally get on our drug busts.” Lutz said. “This is why, our Commissioners, [Chief Comstock’s] council, gives us funding for our offices. We’ve had really good luck having Zanesville Police Department as a partner and having our joint Drug Unit. Having those groups together, working together and sharing information gives us the ability to take cases like this off the street.”

Officials say the drugs seized during the raid includes almost one kilogram of fentanyl, more than a quarter of a kilogram of cocaine, one pound of methamphetamines, and one pound of marijuana.