$18,066 In Cash Recovered From Coat Kept In Joliet Basement, SAFE-T-Act Detention Ordered: Judge

JOLIET, IL — Roman Medel, a 36-year-old Joliet man who lists the Will County Jail as his permanent address, will be kept in the county facility after losing his SAFE-T-Act hearing in front of the Will County judges. Medel is a big-time drug dealer, according to the petition. He's charged with unlawful manufacture and delivery of controlled substances, possession of a gun as a repeat felony offender, plus manufacture of marijuana and possession of controlled substances.

How did the Will County Sheriff's Office take Medel down?

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According to the court filings, on Oct. 21, Will County raided Medel's house in the 900 block of Deep Haven Drive in Joliet. The court files show that three children ages 5, 10 and 12 were home when the raid began and the police found 3 bags of 150 Fentanyl pills weighing 17.8 grams inside one of the 5-year-old's jackets. A 32-year-old woman by the name of Lakyla Campbell was also arrested.

Inside the back adult bedroom, Will County found a money counter and a loaded 9-millimeter handgun in the closet inside a purse, court files show. Then there were 786 grams of marijuana in the kitchen, $4,480 on the kitchen counter and $525 inside a pair of shorts in the living room, court documents reflect. And get this, $18,066 in cash was found inside a coat pocket down in the basement, prosecutors revealed.

The basement also contained 15 rounds of ammunition, three Fentanyl pills from a kitchen cabinet and two more from the floor, court documents state.

County sheriff's noted that Medel had his mail sent to the residence and four cell phones were recovered.

"Lakyla stated that she did not know anything about the drugs and that she did not have a firearm in the residence, however, she does have a valid FOID and CCL permit," prosecutors outlined.

Campbell had an outstanding warrant for her arrest, out of Pike County, for a 2014 DUI.

So how were the Will County prosecutors successful in winning their pretrial detention hearings against Medel and Campbell?

As for Medel, prosecutors noted, "the defendant has multiple prior felony convictions for possessing a firearm as a felon, discharging a firearm in the direction of another, reckless discharging a firearm and delivering a controlled substance. Allowing 150 pills of Fentanyl to be inside a 5-year-old's jacket pocket as well as a bag of Ecstasy show that he continues to be a danger. He has a residence with children and fentanyl pills on the floor in the kitchen.

"Contact with a fentanyl pill is very dangerous and could cause death or great bodily harm to any of the children living at the residence."

As for Campbell, she is charged with unlawful manufacture or delivery of controlled substances, possession of controlled substances, unlawful delivery of marijuana and endangering the life or health of a child.