This just in…
Tuesday, Dec 2, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller
* 12:18 pm - Wow. From the US Attorney…
A six-passenger, twin propeller engine aircraft flew on May 13 this year into west suburban DuPage Airport where three men awaited its arrival. Two of them – Ahyetoro A. Taylor and Raphael Manuel, both Cook County Sheriff’s Office Correctional Officers – accompanied an individual whom they believed brokered large-scale drug transactions but, in fact, was an undercover FBI agent. They boarded the aircraft, which was operated by two other undercover agents, and began counting packages of what was purported to be at least 80 kilograms of cocaine stashed inside four duffel bags. Taylor, Manuel and the undercover agent they accompanied removed the duffels from the plane and took them through the airport lobby to the trunk of the agent’s car in the parking lot. Taylor and Manuel, in a separate car, followed the agent to a nearby retail parking lot, where the agent parked and got into the officers’ vehicle. Together, the trio watched as yet another undercover agent arrived, removed the duffels from the trunk of the parked car, placed them in a Mercedes and drove away. The FBI agent posing as the drug broker then paid Taylor and Manuel $4,000 each - allegedly their most profitable payday in the corrupt relationship they began with the undercover agent at least a year earlier.
The undercover agent, while posing as an employee of a business in south suburban Harvey, was the hub in multiple spokes of police corruption in which Taylor and Manuel – often together with other officers they recruited – allegedly provided armed security for purported cocaine and heroin transactions throughout the south suburbs in 2007 and 2008. The investigation resulted in the unsealing today of federal charges against 17 defendants – 15 of them sworn law enforcement officers, including 10 Cook County Sheriff’s Office Correctional Officers , 4 Village of Harvey police officers and a Chicago police officer. The defendants allegedly accepted between $400 and $4,000 each on one or more occasions to serve as lookouts and be ready to intervene in the event real police or rival drug dealers attempted to interfere with any of a dozen different purported transfers of kilogram quantities of cocaine and heroin.
Today’s arrests and charges were announced by Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Robert D. Grant, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. They commended the assistance of the Cook County Sheriff’s Office in the investigation.
All 17 defendants were charged with conspiracy to possess and distribute kilogram quantities of cocaine and/or heroin in eight separate criminal complaints that were unsealed following arrests early today.
The full press release is here.
* 2:48 pm - From the Tribune…
Officers allegedly were paid up to $4,000 each as they served as lookouts and prepared to step in if law enforcement cracked down on the operations, authorities said. The undercover investigation run by the FBI allegedly saw officers protecting poker games and transporting cash.
Fourteen of the defendants were either arrested or surrendered today and are expected to make initial appearances in U.S. District Court this afternoon.
Two of the officers are accused of selling powder cocaine, and all are charged with conspiracy to possess and sell drugs.
An undercover agent acting as a drug dealer allegedly paid 16 of the defendants some $44,000 during the course of the investigation. In once incident, corrections officers Ahyetoro Taylor and Raphael Manuel met the undercover agent at the DuPage Airport, where they allegedly helped count what they believed were 80 kilograms of cocaine. The officers each were paid $4,000 for helping with the shipment.
Authorities said the undercover agent posed as an employee of a Harvey business that was not identified. It was described by authorities as the “hub in multiple spokes of police corruption” as Manuel and Taylor recruited officers to help them.
- Speaking at Will - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 12:49 pm:
Holy C__p
- Kevin Fanning - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 12:52 pm:
Sounds like something out of the Untouchables.
- South Side Mike - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 12:56 pm:
It sounds like a movie plot, not real life. I wonder how many “protection” trips these creeps served on for real drug smugglers. That’s just scary. I just hope that they number of officers who were aware of the corruption was very small, and that the formidable “blue wall of silence” didn’t enable this to continue.
Kudos to the USA and the agents who arranged these stings. The main undercover agent in particular put his life at risk, and still is in danger due to potential retaliation.
- Downstate weed chewing hick - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 1:00 pm:
This is cool in a couple of ways. Firts of all, getting bad guys, especially those who walk both sides of the line, is really important. Secondly, with cool operations like this, P.F. continues to insulate himself from those who would like to see him fired for self-serving political reasons. Well done!
- Boscobud - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 1:07 pm:
Where is Jack Bauer? This sounds like the plot for 24.
- Cassandra - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 1:11 pm:
Given the amount of money involved in the illegal drug trade, this can’t be an isolated instance.
There must be some procedures which could be put in place to prevent this kind of activity–or at least substantially reduce the likelihood it would occur.
- former reporter - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 1:13 pm:
This should be no surprise to anyone who read the then-Daily Southtown (now SouthtownStar) year-long series on Harvey. Reposted on their website now. But of course, will that newspaper or any other in the area be able to do that kind of investigation now after all these budget cuts?
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 1:23 pm:
I’m surprised these officers alleged predisposition to corruption wasn’t flagged by their mandatory drug screenings.
Seriously, it’s an old story, but there’s just too much money in illegal drugs. In fact, that’s all illegal drugs are:money. You pay to use it, you pay to stop it, and some are paid to deal or facilitate dealing. Here we have the ridiculous extreme: officers paid to stop drugs dealing drugs. They’re getting paid on both ends.
It’ll never happen, but maybe some sort of decriminalization would at least remove the attendant corruption and violence associated with it. Repeal the Volstead Act, and you don’t have bootlegger gang wars. Start a state lottery, and you don’t have murders over control of the policy wheels on the South and West Sides.
- Been There - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 1:29 pm:
And Harvey wondered why their bid for the 10th riverboat license wasn’t picked?
- Gadfly - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 1:36 pm:
I’m just curious what the press release is doing buried in the Sangamon County Watercolor Society web site. I’m certain that Rich can afford legitimate web hosting. This must be some nefarious plot.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 1:42 pm:
Gadfly, it prevents this site from crashing.
- b-dogg - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 1:44 pm:
*sigh* and the drug war continues on, and on, and on; with the same story on a different day. there are two issues in this country that need drastic change but nobody has the political cajones to touch- immigration and the drug war. both policies are failures on the grandest scales, yet nothing is done about it. what do you call someone or something who keeps doing the same thing over and over again yet the result never changes?
answer- not very smart.
- Six Degrees of Separation - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 1:47 pm:
Gadfly…
Don’t be so critical. I went to the main site of the Society and found some good stuff that I wouldn’t have found otherwise. How about these tips on appreciating beauty:
http://sangamonwatercolor.org/paintingtips/5ways/
A little more on topic, I used to work in the Harvey area, and it was just as rough then as it is now. I think the south suburbs can offer more corruption to the police officer, mainly because there are less sets of eyes on you. The stories I could tell.
- Dan S, a Voter and Cubs Fan - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 1:49 pm:
Is this what is slowing down Blagoof’s indictment?
- Reality - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 1:52 pm:
Just antoher reason we cannot trust anyone in the current Illinois power structure. The Cook County Sheriff’s office now?
The best thing for this state would be to elect Patrick Fitzgerald as our next Governor or Attorney General to clean this cesspool up.
Patrick Fitzgerald is awesome.
Draft Fitzgerald for statewide office now!!!
- Phineas J. Whoopee - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 2:03 pm:
Well now, I think we know what Fitz, Grant and Daley were talking about at that funeral. This is crazier than an episode of The Shield.
The Cook County Sheriffs Office continues to be an embarrassment of monumental proportions and should be depoliticized and run like the Chicago or State police. They are not perfect but this is way out of bounds.
Truly an atom smasher-this one.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 2:10 pm:
===Draft Fitzgerald for statewide office now!!! ===
You think he could do more as treasurer than as US Attorney?
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 2:17 pm:
To the person I just deleted, please don’t swear in your posts, even with “symbols.”
- Bill - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 2:17 pm:
===should be depoliticized and run like the Chicago or State police.===
LOL
- Louis G. Atsaves - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 2:17 pm:
This sounds right out of “American Gangster” starring Denzel Washington. Except in Gangster, a military base air strip was used!
- Truthful James - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 2:23 pm:
Day by day, the number of people in Illinois who are immune from scrutiny is falling.
- BandCamp - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 2:24 pm:
except in a movie, there IS a disruption and the cops have to get involved in violence.
WOW…just thing if something went wrong during one of these exchanges and federal agents were fired on/wounded/killed.
- the Patriot - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 2:25 pm:
Yea, this makes me want to go along with Mayor Daley and the Chicago thugs to ban guns in the state of Illinois. The Cook County and Chicago police are such good examples of how we don’t need weapons to protecto ourselves when we have reliable law enforcement available.
12 ga shotgun $300.00
45 cal handgun $650.00
needing $4,000 to obtain assistance from the sheriff’s office…priceless!
- Macbeth - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 2:27 pm:
Fantastic!
Just like an Elmore Leonard novel. Wow.
- Phineas J. Whoopee - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 2:27 pm:
Bill, it does sound laughable but there really is a stark difference between the quality of personnel in the Sheriffs Office and in the Chicago and State Police forces which are run far less politically.
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 2:35 pm:
Upon further review, what’s interesting here is that there were no real drugs or drug dealers; these were all sting operations.
That’s a lot of defendants to rope in on stings. As time goes on, it will be interesting to see how this operation originated and why the particular officers were targeted. In other words, who’s the snitch?
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 2:43 pm:
===who’s the snitch?===
It appears an undercover FBI agent convinced the coppers that he was a bad guy. S/he set up a “business” in Harvey.
Very, very dangerous assignment, to say the least.
- Anon - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 2:44 pm:
Has Durbin asked to have their sentences commuted yet?
- 618er - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 2:45 pm:
This is exactly from the plot of The Usual Suspects,
New York city’s finest taxi service…..Keyser Söze does exist…
- Six Degrees of Separation - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 2:48 pm:
Very, very dangerous assignment, to say the least.
What, to be an undercover FBI agent, or to be assigned in Harvey?
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 2:48 pm:
Rich, what I meant was who turned the FBI on to these guys? From what I read in the press release, they don’t have them in any real drug deals (not that it matters under the law). But obviously the FBI had some idea that these guys had done this kind of work before.
- Wumpus - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 2:49 pm:
Okay, isn’t the Cook’s county Sheriff a patronage dumping ground? Not saying all or most are bad guys/gals.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 2:51 pm:
wordslinger, apparently it was citizen complaints. According to what I’ve read so far, the undercover agent set up shop and began reeling them in.
- Steve - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 2:55 pm:
For those of you in Chicago who are for gun control: what happens when law enforcement officers like these have the right to own a gun and you don’t? A question to ponder.Just a few bad apples?
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 3:00 pm:
Why do zealots use almost every topic to bring up their pet issues?
So, you think you could use your own gun to ward off those cops? Think again.
- Cousin Ralph - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 3:16 pm:
One wonders who these cops are expected to turn on. This sting op. is a slam dunk from a prosecutor’s point of view. Who is up the food chain that might be far more worried than wowed about today’s news. The practice has to be wide spread and well known to rope this many cops in. Harvey is hardly newsworthy, Cook County Sheriff’s Dept Correctional officers!alltogether different.
- Carl Nyberg - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 3:21 pm:
The Cook County Sheriff’s Department populated by criminals? I’m shocked! Shocked!
Let me predict what Anita Alvarez will say.
“The U.S. Attorney has the manpower to put ten agents on a case for every one the Cook County State’s Attorney can deploy.”
“We follow the evidence.”
Of course, it’s BS. In three years of leading the public integrity division Alvarez didn’t get a single conviction for political corruption. And somehow Alvarez failed to convict the five deputy sheriffs who started shooting from their SUV at a Black couple.
There’s criminality in Cook County government b/c the Cook County State’s Attorney allows there to be criminality. It’s as simple as one elected official protecting the interests of his/her other elected officials and local political bosses.
- Carl Nyberg - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 3:31 pm:
Any idea who these guys’ political patrons are?
Neither of these guys show up as political contributors….
How surprising would it be if they were making cash contributions to their bosses (political patrons)?
I’m curious how these guys participated in local elections. And who are they related to?
The people in local government who think they are untouchable tend to have patrons who make them untouchable. Who are the patrons? And what did the crooked deputy sheriffs do for their patrons? This is where the plot gets juicy.
- EmptySuitParade - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 3:33 pm:
Speaking of single issue zealots…how many other drug laden flights zoomed into BrickheadJoe’s favorite airstrp undetected by local police?????
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 3:35 pm:
Carl, not everything is a political plot.
- Carl Nyberg - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 3:47 pm:
Rich, I guess we’ll see how the story unfolds.
- I'm just saying - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 3:56 pm:
And always we’ll laugh as your Tinfoil hat Plot falls apart Carl
- Bill Baar - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 4:00 pm:
Carl’s right… we don’t want nobody nobody didn’t send… Be interesting to see who sent these folks.
- Disgusted - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 5:48 pm:
“We don’t want nobody what nobody sent!”
- Deep Water - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 6:23 pm:
millions of dollars worth of drugs flow into this country every day. Lats get the big guys once in a while!
- Frank Sobotka - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 7:32 pm:
And somewhere, in a quiet federal building cubicle, (former) Detective Mick Vackey is completing his shift of writing gang intelligence reports in the dark, having successfully angled for an immunity deal from the feds that sent his pals to prison and saved his hide……
- Pick of the litter - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 8:26 pm:
Hey Frank, did you mean Vic Mackey or am I just slow to the joke?
- JonShibleyFan - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 8:33 pm:
Bill Baar, I am guessing Ulysses S. Grant and Benjamin Franklin sent them (or brought them as it were), though I have the utmost faith that you can concoct a complicated plot that ties it all back to Barack Obama and the ultimate downfall of the Democratic Party.
- Reality - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 9:20 pm:
Rich, don’t get me wrong Fitzgerald can do a lot as U.S. Atty but his job security is unknown at this point. I wouldn’t want him as Treasurer or Comptroller but I do think he could turn around the image of this state as Governor or even Attorney General. He takes marching orders from above as U.S. Atty and that job does require more picking and choosing of what to go after. In a job like State AG or Gov he runs his own show and can shine the light on more areas. We’ve got a gem in Fitz.
- Frank Sobotka - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 9:24 pm:
Pick OTL -
No, Vic worked in LA. I’m thinking of the Chicago based version of him….
Read an interview with Shawn Ryan talking about the research they did for the show (police corruption cases); and how it all hinges on one guy rolling on the others. I imagine that might have happened here as well, at some point.
- Name/Nickname/Anon - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 9:41 pm:
I have a very low tolerance for public servants who use their position for their own benefit. These cops deserve the maximum penalty. (Same goes for George Ryan and Rod Blagojevich, although I do feel a tiny bit sorry for Ryan because all the other politicians were doing the same crap, he just got caught.)
- Arthur Andersen - Tuesday, Dec 2, 08 @ 9:55 pm:
Hey Empty Suit-there were no drugs in the bags on the G’s airplane. It was a sting operation. Capisce? Birkett could have screwed up the whole thing if he had people out there playing Eliot Ness. Next time, perhaps the USAO can send out their release in comic book form so that you’ll understand it.
Now, go back to harassing the interns.
- The Conservative - Wednesday, Dec 3, 08 @ 6:24 am:
Nothing lower than a crooked cop. They took an oath, an example needs to be made with the stiffest penalty possible. No deals.