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 Health & Beauty | March 2007 
7 Chicagoans Accused of Selling Deadly Fentanyl-Laced Heroin
 Associated Press
| | Heroin belongs to a group of drugs called opiates, which are strong, addictive pain-killing drugs. |
Chicago - Seven alleged gang members procured a powerful painkiller produced at an illegal lab in Mexico, mixed it with heroin and sold it in Chicago public housing complexes - killing five people, according to newly unsealed indictments.
The two drug conspiracy indictments unsealed Thursday name 13 people in Mexico and seven members of Chicago's Mickey Cobras street gang.
The new charges mark the first time law enforcement has been able to link the Mexican laboratory in Toluca to drug sales in Chicago. Last year, federal prosecutors in Chicago charged 47 gang members and associates with selling heroin and the painkiller fentanyl in public housing.
Mexican authorities shut down the lab last year.
Frank Limon, chief of the Chicago Police Department's organized crime division, applauded the charges as a successful cooperation between city and federal authorities.
"Today's indictment reached across our borders to Mexico and indicted the alleged head of a drug trafficking organization," Limon said Thursday. "This shows what can be accomplished when federal and local agencies combine their efforts."
Hundreds have died nationwide from heroin laced with fentanyl. In Cook County, officials have attributed more than 200 deaths to fentanyl-laced heroin from April 2005 through August 2006.
Six of the 13 from Mexico who were indicted are awaiting extradition. The seven Chicagoans include the gang's alleged leader. Some of them could face life in prison if convicted, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Jake Ryan. |
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