Both men were arrested after probation officers reported guns were found in their homes
by: Joe Gorman
Posted: Apr 28, 2021 / 11:50 AM EDT
Updated: April 28, 2021 / 11:50 a.m. EDT
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) – Police arrested two men Tuesday as part of the revised Operation Steel Penguin.
19-year-old Mikklo Degaldo of East Avondale Avenue was arrested for a parole violation. Thomas Nickerson, 33, of Drummond Avenue was arrested for a crime in possession of a gun.
Both men are in the Mahoning County Jail. Nickerson is expected to face indictment in the local court today. Degaldo’s parole violation is scheduled for a hearing in the Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
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Delgado was arrested around 6:35 p.m. after police and members of the state adult probation department assigned to the steel penguin detail visited his home and reported finding a loaded 9mm pistol after the search.
Since Delgado is on parole, he can be searched at any time.
Delgado told authorities he did not know there was a gun in the house. According to reports, a woman in the gun house belonged to someone who was in prison in October.
Delgado was taken into custody because he was not allowed to be near firearms as a condition of his probation.
At around 8:55 p.m., officers and probation officers also visited Nickerson’s home, where they reported finding a marijuana cigarette in a microwave. They kept searching and said they found a 9mm pistol along with marijuana and a scale.
Nickerson said he didn’t know the gun was there, but he admitted the marijuana was his, which is a violation of his parole, reports say.
A woman in the apartment denied she knew the gun was there, but at one point she asked what would happen if she said the gun was hers, reports say.
Nickerson was reportedly banned from holding a gun by the Mahoning County Common Pleas Court for aggravated assault and heightened robbery convictions in 2010 and 2011. He received a six-year prison sentence.
Nickerson also had previous criminal convictions from 2006.
Operation Steel Penguin is a program made up of the City Police, APA agents, and members of the Federal Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Office, and the U.S. Attorney General that searches for anyone known to be carrying guns, though they are prohibited by law from wearing.
The program ran in the city in 2019 and was suspended last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
