Vivek Ramaswamy's henchmen problems run deeper than a federal drug trafficking arrest
Ramaswamy's preferred private security company, ARK Protection Group, is rife with unlicensed bodyguards.
United States Postal Inspectors recently arrested Justin Salsburey, a 43-year-old bodyguard for Ohio Republican gubernatorial frontrunner Vivek Ramaswamy, for allegedly trafficking fentanyl, OxyContin, and other narcotics through the mail.
Connie Luck, the spokeswoman for Ramaswamy’s campaign, told Jeremy Pelzer of cleveland.com that the family was “alarmed” by the “disturbing” news.
“Vivek and his family take matters of safety seriously and support efforts to hold these individuals accountable for these allegations if they are proven,” she said.
Luck added that Salsburey passed pre-employment drug screenings and random drug testing while working for ARK Protection Group.
Ramaswamy has since retained ARK’s services.
In a statement provided to cleveland.com, Ron Gazboda, the owner of ARK Protection Group, denied knowledge of “any issues” concerning the safety of clients or the public.
“While we do not discuss specific security protocols for any of our clients, prior to this incident, we were not aware of any issues concerning this individual that would impact the safety of our clients or the public,” Gazboda said.
Gazboda primarily tasked Salsburey with sitting outside Mrs. Ramaswamy’s office at the Ohio State Medical Center. There is no evidence he knew of Salsburey’s illicit extracurricular activities.
However, Gazboda was still being dishonest or negligent in that statement.
Because at the time of his arrest on Dec. 30, Salsburey was not licensed to work as a private security guard in Ohio, let alone carry any of the standard weapons needed to repel a potential attack on Ramaswamy’s livelihood:
Ohio does not recognize the reciprocity of bodyguard licenses from other states.
But anyone interested in that line of work must complete 20 hours of training, pay a $72 fingerprinting fee, and undergo a $40 background check with the Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
By comparison, it takes 1,800 hours of training to be a licensed barber in Ohio.
Salsbury didn’t have any of that at the time of his arrest, which meant it was illegal for him to work as a bodyguard, let alone carry any standard weaponry.
The “alleged” drug trafficker isn’t the only illegal operator on ARK Protection Group’s payroll
Jacob M. Owens is one of the most famous names in the executive protection industry. According to one well-placed source, Ramaswamy personally paid to relocate Owens from his home in Florida to Ohio so he could work his detail regularly.
Owens was last seen protecting Ramaswamy on Jan. 12 in Chillicothe, when Ramaswamy hilariously claimed that the ad-hoc renovation of the Paper Mill was somehow a pro-worker win despite losing over 800 unionized jobs.
However, Owens is in the same boat as Salsburey in that he’s currently unlicensed to work as a private security officer or to carry any standard weaponry in Ohio.
Owens’ flagrant violation of basic Ohio law would be something that a competent company would know before they posted several pictures of him working Ramaswamy’s security detail on Dec. 2 at the University of Cincinnati.
Not that the Ohio State Highway Patrolmen noticed the private security’s galling unprofessionalism, either. Apparently, they’d rather take photographs with the offenders than do any cursory checks into the presumably armed men brought onto a college campus.
If they had, they’d have noticed that Owens wasn’t the only unlicensed bodyguard posing for a photograph.
Owens’ partner that night, Christopher Endres, apparently moonlights with ARK Protection Group while off from his day job as a realtor in Dayton.
Endres is also currently unlicensed as a bodyguard.
The problems for ARK Protection Group start at the top
Somewhat surprisingly, Gazboda is a licensed bodyguard in Ohio who holds up-to-date certifications for semi-automatic weapons, though he doesn’t hold pistol or shotgun licenses.
It’s still questionable how, exactly, Gazboda would pay his fleet of unlicensed contractors without piquing the interest of the Internal Revenue Service.
But he also displays poor judgment in petty affairs, like his habit of bragging on Facebook about committing felonies, though that last part seems to be unbeknownst to him.
In May 2024, Gazboda boasted on Facebook about carrying loaded AR-15 magazines in his trunk.
It’s against federal and state laws to travel with a loaded AR-15 in your vehicle, even for active duty police. The law requires magazines to be locked in the glove compartment, with the AR-15 in the trunk, cocked back and open.
Gazboda would have faced an automatic 25 years if he had been caught riding that way.
Back in August, Gazboda posted a picture of him shaking hands with a local cop in Sunbury.
Apparently, the officer was not paying attention to the loaded Armalite rifle clip on Gazboda’s hip, while both men were seemingly unaware that there is no license available in Ohio for private security to carry such weaponry in the first place.
Though it’s probably safe to assume that Gazboda incorrectly thinks it would be covered by his “semi-automatic” licensure.
The unprofessionalism helps explain why at least two other ARK security guards, Christopher Hartzler and Chad Luning, are also currently working on expired weaponry licenses.
What this scandal shows about Ramaswamy
If I were an alleged billionaire looking to protect my professional wife, I wouldn’t penny-pinch on a protection service using independent contractors.
But if I did go that route, I probably would re-examine that business relationship if the company tasked with protecting my family hired a steroid-addled maniac who thought he could get away with trafficking narcotics through the mail.
But Ramaswamy apparently didn’t think much about the news his campaign spokeswoman called “disturbing.” He has allowed ARK Protection Group to continue to maintain his security, and probably wouldn’t have learned about their lack of basic paperwork until they had to shoot somebody illegally to save him.
Because Ohio law is clear. Bodyguards must be licensed to work in Ohio. They must maintain separate licensing to carry pistols, shotguns or small-caliber, semi-automatic weapons.
Those are standards that can be covered with a 20-hour class and $112 for a background check and fingerprinting service. And that bare minimum is apparently too much for ARK Protection Group.
If these are the braggadocious, unprofessional yokels that Ramaswamy has chosen to protect his family, what does that say about his ability to protect the rest of us, should Ohioans elect him as our governor in 11 months?