WARREN, Ohio (WKBN) – A Warren man pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and weapons charges.
Val Bender, 49, faces up to four years in prison after pleading guilty to a charge of trafficking in cocaine/crack and having weapons while under disability, according to a release from the Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office on Wednesday.
Bender will be sentenced after he undergoes a background investigation conducted by probation officers. He will also forfeit a 9mm Taurus firearm that was seized during a September 2021 search of his home after he had sold small amounts of cocaine to a confidential informant working with the Warren Police Department’s Street Crimes Unit, according to prosecutors.
Bender was forbidden to handle firearms because of a 2002 conviction for aggravated robbery, prosecutors said.
