Former BGSU football players caught with $200,000 in cocaine

BOTKINS - Two former Bowling Green State University football players face felony drug charges after officers of the Botkins Police Department caught them Monday with two kilograms of suspected cocaine.

Police estimated the quantity seized has a street value of more than $200,000.

Officer Thomas Hoying arrested the former players - Loren Hargrove and Melvin Cole, both 23 - shortly after 8:33 p.m. Hoying was responding to a report of someone illegally dumping trash behind a nearby hotel.

Hargrove is a Berea native and standout athlete and student. A December graduate of BGSU and former captain of the football team, playing linebacker, police said Hargrove was driving the vehicle in which the cocaine was found. His passenger, another former BGSU football player, Melvin Cole, of Memphis, Tenn., was arrested on the same first-degree felony drug charges.

Botkins Police Chief Wayne T. Glass Jr., said Hoying became suspicious because Cole and Hargrove were acting nervous. After Hargrove gave officers permission to search his vehicle, Hoying and officers from the Anna and Jackson Center police departments, found the cocaine in an orange bag on a middle seat. No other drugs were found in the vehicle.

Hargrove and Cole were charged with trafficking in drugs and possession of drugs, and taken to Shelby County Jail.