OAK LAWN GETS $1.2 MILLION FROM BUST

Money From 1998 Raid To Be Used On Equipment, Training

A tip about cocaine dealing in Oak Lawn has netted the village the
thanks of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and a $1.2
million check, Oak Lawn's share of money seized in a major drug bust.

In a short ceremony at the Oak Lawn Village Board meeting last week,
DEA officials presented Oak Lawn Police Chief James Houk with a mock
over-sized check.

The money — the largest amount Oak Lawn has ever received from a
single drug money forfeiture — will be spent on police training,
equipment and programs, Oak Lawn Police Lt. Robert Smith said.

And the village may yet receive another windfall from $28.5 million
worth of property and money seized when authorities broke up a drug
ring.

In July 1997, police received information that two men were dealing
drugs out of a condominium at 105th Street and Pulaski Road, Smith
said.

For close to a year, Officer Dan Foley, an Oak Lawn officer detailed
to the DEA since 1995, led a team of agents investigating the pair,
writing down the license plate numbers on vehicles visiting the
condominium and tracking the financial dealings of the two men, Smith
said.

Also part of the detail was Bridgeview Police Officer Louis Dominguez,
another DEA task force member.

"We get information (about a lot of traffic to someone's house) and we
check it out," Smith said. "And sometimes they are (dealing drugs) and
sometimes they're dealing Tupperware. This guy was spending a lot of
money and it looked like he was dealing dope."

On May 26, 1998, agents raided a house at 6142 S. Kilpatrick Ave.,
Chicago, that was shared by Steve Weber, 30, and Jesse Quintanilla,
31, who also owned the Oak Lawn condominium.

One of the men was arrested outside with a duffel bag stuffed with
$200,000, Smith said. Police obtained search warrants and recovered a
total of $6.2 million in small bills from the house and garage, as
well as 1,300 kilograms of cocaine, he said.

"There was money and dope everywhere," Smith said. "We hit them really
hard. It was lucky that the day (the raid occurred) they decided to
take off. We hit them at the right time.

Police believe Weber and Quintanilla were about to send the money to
Texas and Mexico in payment for previous drug loads. If the agents
waited another day to hit the house, all they probably would have
found would have been empty wrappers, he said.

The next day, agents hit a warehouse on 18th Street and a storage shed
in Chicago. More kilos of cocaine were located in boxes of rotten
produce, Smith said.

And more arrests were made that fall. Altogether, nine people,
including Weber and Quintanilla, were arrested and charged with drug
trafficking, and authorities seized some 1 1/2 tons of cocaine, 15
vehicles and guns.