CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Federal agents on Thursday raided several car repair shops and dealerships throughout Northeast Ohio as part of an investigation into two drug rings accused of selling fentanyl, heroin, ecstasy and other drugs throughout the region.

Twenty-six people are charged in two separate federal indictments that accused the groups of laundering cash through their businesses, including:

Global Auto Body and Collision on West 130th Street owned by Emad Silmi

U.S. Motor Sales in Parma owned by Samer Abu-Kwaik

Santiago Autocare on Bridge Road in Cleveland owned by Irwin Vargas

Ways to Save Auto Sales on Ridge Road owned by Isidoro Gonzalez, which sits about 100 yards from an anti-opioid billboard

Advanced Auto Repair on Superior Avenue and East 39th Street owned by Erkan Nevzadi

They also used the businesses as fronts for buying, selling and storing drugs, federal prosecutors said.

The drug rings included a father-son tandem -- Vargas, 42, and his son Irwing Vargas Rosario, 24 -- as well as Silmi, who was once sentenced to nearly five years in federal prison for dealing drugs from his former Ohio City club Moda, federal authorities said. The club was shuttered in 2006.

Moda was a popular club frequented by stars such as LeBron James, Shaquille O'Neal, the rapper 50 Cent, drummer Tommy Lee and hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons.

The drug rings were connected by a mid-level dealer and distributor Nelson Benitez, 34, court records say.

Federal authorities this morning arrested 18 people charged in the indictments. Sixteen were arrested in Cleveland, one in Puerto Rico and one in Detroit, FBI spokeswoman Vicki Anderson said. Five others turned themselves in, one was already in police custody and two -- Victor Felix, 39, and William Rodriguez, 40 -- remain at-large, Anderson said.

The FBI dubbed the drug investigation "Operation Snow Globe." Both drug rings had drugs shipped in via the U.S. Mail, FedEx and UPS, according to prosecutors.

Silmi ran one of the drug rings that distributed marijuana, cocaine and ecstasy, court records say. He obtained the marijuana and cocaine from California and the ecstasy from a middleman who got the drugs from China, according to the indictment. He also used Abu-Kwaik as a supplier, court records say.

The FBI investigated Silmi from Jan. 1, 2016 through March 31, 2017. Silmi directed drug dealers to come to his shop to pick up the drugs, court records say. He also spoke to several of his dealers about a 22-pound shipment of marijuana being stolen by a FedEx delivery driver. The shipment was worth $60,000, according to court records.

Agents in August 2016 searched Silmi's car shop and found 10 pounds of marijuana, a pound-and-a-half of ecstasy and a small amount of cocaine, court records say.

Abu-Kwaik was arrested Oct. 3, 2016 while driving more than two pounds of cocaine from his shop to Silmi, court records say. Investigators search Abu-Kwaik's home that day and found 182 pounds of marijuana, according to court records.

Nezvadi is accused of selling marijuana and ecstasy from his shop and supplying some of the dealers that also bought from Silmi, according to court records.

Vargas and Gonzalez ran the other drug ring.

They obtained heroin, fentanyl, cocaine and U-47700, a fairly new synthetic opioid, from Puerto Rico, court records say. They sold the drugs throughout Cleveland and Toledo, according to court records.

The group laundered money through their car repair shops, wire transfers and by depositing small amounts of money into ATMs, court records say.

They sold fentanyl pills disguised as oxycodone, according to the indictment. Wiretaps also recorded the two as they spoke about the need to cut fentanyl into the heroin they sold because customers complained when they didn't, the indictment says.

They also joked about a time when they accidentally mixed up a shipment of fentanyl with a shipment of heroin. A customer who thought he was injecting heroin actually injected pure fentanyl and started shaking, court records say.

"Dude, no wonder that guy was trembling the other day," Gonzalez told Vargas, according to the indictment. "That was it."

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