Heroin, Coke, Ecstasy, Guns, Bulletproof Vests Seized In Raid

COUNTRYSIDE, IL -- The DuPage Metropolitan Enforcement Group seized heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, guns and bulletproof vests while executing a search warrant in Countryside. Joseph Hall, 36, and Courtney Jackson, 32, appeared before Judge Peter Felice on multiple felony charges of participating in a calculated criminal drug conspiracy and manufacture and delivery of a controlled substance.

Hall is currently on parole from the Illinois Department of Corrections, where he had been serving six-year sentence after he was convicted of possession of a stolen firearm in 2014.

A prosecutor from the Illinois Attorney General’s Office, told the judge that on Dec. 4, officers executed a search warrant at an apartment complex in the 9700 block of Lorraine Drive in Countryside. Hall and Jackson had been under investigation after undercover officers from DMEG claimed to have made multiple drug purchases. The transactions had been arranged by phone, where the undercover cops had been directed to the Countryside apartment complex,

DMEG, an enforcement group composed of federal, state, county and local law enforcement agencies, went to pair’s residence with a search warrant where they found 60 grams of heroin, two firearms, two bulletproof vests, 10.2 grams of cocaine, and 37 ecstasy pills, the prosecutor said.

If convicted, Hall, considered a habitual armed offender, faces a mandatory life sentence. He is being held without bond. Jackson was released on a $30,000 I-bond.

“I hope you change your ways, presuming your innocent,” Felice said.

Hall and Jackson are due back in court Dec. 20 in Bridgeview.