Task Force Seizes Guns, Heroin, Cocaine And Cash In Probe Targeting West Side Drug Ring

CHICAGO, IL — More than 65 people face drug charges as part of a joint federal and state task force's operation that targeted a drug distribution network that supplied cocaine, heroin and fentanyl to the West Side, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois announced Thursday.

Called "Operation Sweet Dreams," the task force's investigation lasted more than a year and was centered primarily in the Garfield Park, Homan Square and North Lawndale neighborhoods. Investigators placed those areas under extensive surveillance, and they tapped cellphones and made undercover drug buys to uncover the drug ring, the U.S. attorney's office said in a statement.

During one of the deals set up and recorded by the task force, a suspect offered to sell his Chevrolet conversion van to an undercover officer in exchange for a kilogram of cocaine, the U.S. attorney's office said. The two met in August at Diversey and Austin avenues in the Belmont Cragin neighborhood where the officer handed over a black bag of "sham cocaine" for the van, according to the complaint.

In another deal, a suspect under surveillance bought 2 kilograms of heroin for $132,800 in October in an alley in the 1800 block of North Leavitt Street in the Bucktown neighborhood.

Along with the arrests, the operation — organized by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, a partnership of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies that tackles serious drug trafficking, weapons trafficking and money laundering rings — also seized the following contraband:

• more than a dozen firearms, including an assault rifle and a semiautomatic pistol
• more than three kilograms of heroin
• three kilograms of cocaine
• more than $380,000 in cash

The task force began making arrests Thursday morning, and the defendants will face federal and state narcotics charges. Two suspects also were charged with federal firearm violations as part of criminal complaints filed earlier this week in U.S. District Court and unsealed after the arrests, the U.S. attorney's office said.

Initial court appearances for suspects facing federal charges will begin Thursday afternoon, while state defendants charged in separate complaints will appear later in Cook County court.

photo via Patch archive

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