CHICAGO COP IS FACING DRUG CHARGES IN MISSISSIPPI

A Chicago police officer who was once the target of an unsuccessful
department firing attempt was being held Monday in a Mississippi jail on a
drug charge after deputies said they found 120 pounds of marijuana in a van
in which he was traveling.

Peter Ramon, who had been assigned to the Albany Park District station on
the Northwest Side, was traveling from Houston to Chicago on Feb. 25 when
sheriff's deputies stopped the van north of Jackson, Miss., officials said
Monday.

Deputies smelled marijuana in the van and, during a search, found marijuana
packaged in several large bundles at the rear of the van. Madison County
sheriff's Investigator Jim Marlett said that the marijuana, which he
described as high quality, was worth close to $180,000.

Ramon was being held on a $250,000 bond, according to Marlett.

A Chicago Police Department spokesman said Monday that Ramon had been
suspended without pay and that the case was under internal investigation.

"The next move will be waiting until he goes to trial," said the spokesman,
Pat Camden.

Chicago police tried to fire Ramon, who has been on the force for 13 years,
in 1993. They charged that he provided false testimony in a 1990 case to
the Police Department and in the court case that followed, according to
Chicago Police Board records.

A two-day hearing was held before the Police Board, which acts as a trial
court in firing cases, and the board found that Ramon violated one
departmental rule. He was acquitted of violating two other rules, the
records show.

The case involved a Jan. 7, 1990, arrest. Ramon, according to the Police
Board records, failed to report to the department or to the court that he
had information that his suspect frequently was carrying drugs. Ramon
received that information from the suspect's mother-in-law.

Ramon, according to the documents, was suspended in the fall of 1993.

Ramon was a passenger in a van driven by Kelly Massano, 22, of North
Kimball Avenue, when it was stopped on Interstate Highway 55 a bit north of
Jackson, Miss.

Marlett said deputies stopped the van because it was weaving. The deputies
smelled marijuana and brought in a drug-sniffing dog. When the dog
indicated drugs were in the van, the deputies searched it.

Marlett said narcotics detectives believe Ramon and Massano bought the
marijuana in Houston and were hoping to return to Chicago to sell it.

Ramon, of North Elston Avenue, was charged with drug possession. Massano
was charged with drug possession, careless driving and driving without a
license, according to Marlett.