COLUMBUS, Ohio — A Columbus man who led a large-scale conspiracy involving narcotics distribution, sex trafficking, fraud and money laundering pleaded guilty in a U.S. District Court on Tuesday.
The plea agreement for 44-year-old Patrick Saultz includes an agreed sentence range of 27 to 30 years in prison, according to a release from the office of U.S. District Attorney Kenneth Parker.
Saultz pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute controlled substances within 1,000 of an elementary school, conspiracy to commit sex trafficking and concealment money laundering.
Between January 2008 and 2022, the organization brought large amounts of narcotics into Columbus and sold them across the city while also coercing people to engage in sexual activities for profit, from which the organization benefited. Members of the organization trafficked narcotics such as fentanyl, cocaine, crack cocaine, heroin, meth, marijuana, oxycodone and alprazolam.
“Investigators calculated that the organization was selling approximately 40 grams of fentanyl per day out of each drug house they oversaw, and a conservative estimate concludes that, in addition, the organization dealt kilogram quantities of cocaine and crack cocaine during the course of its operation as well," Parker said.
Saultz acknowledged to authorities that he and another co-conspirator owned and operated multiple pieces of real estate on the west side. One of the houses they bought and used for drug dealing was across the street from Burroughs Elementary School.
Court documents also detail how Saultz and other members of the organization ran a sex trafficking operation. The women were forced to give him the money and other members for a place to live and for more drugs.
The plea agreement requires Saultz to pay restitution to the sex trafficking victims and forfeit his rights to all property seized during the investigation, which includes two cars, a motorcycle, firearms, a Rolex watch, and more than $1.7 million in cash.