MASON, Ohio – One of the biggest drug dealers in the Cincinnati area was led into court this week. He looked more like the president of the math club – skinny, pale, bespectacled, dressed in a blue buttoned-down shirt and khakis, and just 17 years old.

Three weeks before he was supposed to start his senior year in high school, Tyler Pagenstecher pleaded guilty to drug-trafficking charges in juvenile court after being arrested and accused of playing a major role in a ring that sold as much as $20,000 worth of high-grade marijuana a month to fellow students in and around this well-to-do suburb.

“He is his own little czar over this high school scenario,” said John Burke, commander of the Warren County Drug Task Force, adding that he never has seen a more successful teenage drug dealer in his jurisdiction.