HS ex-classmates plead guilty in ecstasy bust
Pulver
3 Solon HS ex-classmates plead guilty in ecstasy bust
09/12/03
Jim Nichols
Cleveland Plain Dealer
An Ohio State University student and two of his former
Solon High School classmates pleaded guilty yesterday
to drug charges stemming from a June bust that broke
what authorities said was a major ecstasy-dealing
operation at OSU.
A fourth defendant in the case, a New York man,
admitted on Wednesday to supplying the Solon men with
3,500 tablets of the drug.
OSU student Ghassan Arrabi, 21, and Felix Stepanski, a
21-year-old Cleveland State University student, pleaded
guilty to possessing wholesale quantities of ecstasy,
an illegal depressant also known as MDMA.
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Timothy McGinty
sentenced them each to eight years in prison.
Another Solon man, Michael Khmelnitsky, 21, pleaded
guilty to a felony attempted-possession count; he could
get probation when McGinty sentences him on Oct. 9.
Oleg Ilyayev, 25, of Brooklyn, N.Y., got 10 years in
prison on Thursday after admitting he supplied the
drugs.
On June 16, Franklin County deputies and a suburban
Cleveland drug task force arrested the four in Solon,
along with Ilya Nisonov, 24, of Queens. Assistant
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Deborah Naiman said Nisonov
and Ilyayev delivered $100,000 worth of ecstasy to the
Solon men. He is jailed under $1.5 million bond,
awaiting trial.
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© 2003 The Plain Dealer. Used with permission.