Chicago Police, Feds Arrest 32 For Operating Alleged Heroin Ring On West Side
(CBS) -- Police and federal agents say they have broken a drug ring that was one of the "worst of the worst" on the West Side's "Heroin Highway."
In a series of coordinated raids, 32 people were arrested Wednesday. Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said 10 additional people were still sought in connection with the ring, which controlled heroin and cocaine traffic in the area surrounding Independence Boulevard and Grenshaw Street, just south of the Eisenhower Expressway.
Police size half a kilogram of heroin, more than half a kilogram of cocaine, a dozen guns and $50,000 in cash, as well as a 2014 Maserati belonging to one of those charged.
The investigation took 10 months, although McCarthy said the ring, allegedly run by 33-year-old James Triplett and allegedly supplied by 34-year-old LeVaughn Collins, had controlled the drug trade in the area for more than 10 years.
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He said that in the average month, it sold $250,000 of illegal drugs.
Although murder and attempted murder charges are conspicuously absent from the charging documents.
McCarthy said the focus is on "what we can prove," and reminded reporters that Al Capone did not go to prison for murder, attempted murder or other violent crimes, but for tax evasion.
Prosecutors said 26 of those named in the documents are being charged with state violations, while the other 16 are being charged under federal statutes.
McCarthy said police and the city will make an ongoing commitment to the neighborhood to try to assure that dealers don't move back in.
