CINCINNATI - A Norwood business owner accused of importing fentanyl to the Tri-State has been released to inpatient drug treatment while co-owners of her translation-services company are trying to keep the business operating.
Grace Bosworth, 38, was arrested in early June after an undercover investigation in which federal agents purchased fentanyl on the dark web, then traced the shipment to a Norwood home shared by Bosworth and 30-year-old James Halpin.
Bosworth is the founder of Global 2 Local Language Solutions, according to the company’s website. Their LinkedIn bios identify Bosworth as the company’s president and Halpin as chief operating officer.
City records show the company provided more than $1.6 million in translation services to the city of Cincinnati’s health, police and water works departments since 2013.
Bosworth and Halpin were released from Butler County’s jail June 15 and ordered to “go directly to inpatient” treatment as a condition of their bond by U.S. Magistrate Karen Litkovitz. Their criminal case was transferred to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Northern District of Ohio, where spokesman Michael Tobin said the case will likely be presented to a grand jury. Both defendants face a maximum 20-year sentence if convicted as currently charged, Tobin said.
In a June 13 press release, federal prosecutors said fentanyl and its related compounds are often mailed to the U.S. from China and Hong Kong. Sometimes, they are sent to Canada before being shipped to the U.S.
In this case, court records show investigators used handwriting samples from Bosworth’s divorce case to link packages mailed from Montreal to Norwood and from several Cincinnati-area post offices to locations around the country.
“The amount of drugs seized is enough to kill a football stadium full of people,” Acting U.S. Attorney David A. Sierleja said in a statement. “This case underscores that our state is being inundated with large amounts of deadly drugs. We will continue to aggressively prosecute drug traffickers while working to prevent the next generation of addicts.”
After their initial court appearance in Cincinnati, Bosworth and Halpin were ordered not to communicate with co-defendants in their case and surrender any passports as conditions of being released on their own recognizance. After treatment, Halpin is to live with his “parents in Connecticut” and Bosworth is to “submit to location monitoring” so federal authorities know her whereabouts, according to court records.
Bosworth’s company is in the middle of a leadership change, said Patrick Longo, director of the Hamilton County Business Center. The Mentor Avenue business incubator has been Bosworth’s landlord for about five years. Longo thought Bosworth was the founder and sole owner of the company. But after federal agents raided its offices June 7, co-owners emerged, telling Longo that the company would stay open with new management.
Global 2 Local is "no longer providing translation services to the city," said Cincinnati spokesman Rocky Merz. "Translation Services are uninterrupted and being provided by the city's other contracted translation vendor."
The company has not responded to WCPO’s email and its voicemail box was full.
