COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – A federal court docket shows the Thursday arrests of two Columbus police officers, accused of stealing and selling cocaine, is related to a previous drug trafficking case involving two more Columbus officers.

On Thursday, former Columbus officers Joel Mefford, 34, of London and John Castillo, 31, of Grove City were arrested. Indictments against the pair include accusations of stealing from evidence rooms and investigation scenes, as well as passing off the narcotics to another individual to be sold.

Mefford is accused of stealing 20 kilograms of cocaine from the Columbus police property room in April 2020, replacing it with fake narcotics. He also is alleged to have deposited more than $72,000 in cash from the cocaine sales into his personal bank account.

An indictment against Castillo alleges that in February 2021, he took around 10 kilograms of cocaine from a home during an investigation and did not turn it into evidence. He allegedly planted two kilograms at the house to be discovered by law enforcement, but stored the leftover cocaine in another person’s basement to be sold by another individual.

A federal court docket states that judges believe this case is related to a different case involving Columbus police officers, John Kotchkoski and Marco Merino, who were arrested in 2021 for conspiring to traffic drugs.

Both Kotchkoski and Merino pleaded guilty to conspiring to traffic more than eight kilograms of fentanyl — enough to kill more than one million people. Merino was sentenced to nine years in prison. Kotchkoski will be sentenced in May.

Court documents did not specify how these two cases are connected.