1.5 TONS OF COCAINE SEIZED

DEA drug, cash sting may be city's biggest

A yearlong investigation hit pay dirt this week when a wiretap led agents
into an unexpected 24 hours of activity, ultimately netting one of the
largest drug and cash seizures in Chicago history, authorities said
Wednesday.

Drug Enforcement Administration agents seized about 1.5 tons of cocaine,
the majority of which was found Wednesday morning in a shipment of carrots
delivered to a South Side produce company.

Also seized was an estimated $5 million in cash - mostly small bills
wrapped with rubber bands and piled inside the Southwest Side home of a
chief suspect, said Joseph A. Vanacora, special agent in charge of the Drug
Enforcement Administration in Chicago.

"It's a big hit for any [drug] trafficking organization," Vanacora said of
the busts, which happened Tuesday and Wednesday.

Officials claimed a wholesale value for the cocaine of $31 million and a
potential street value of up to $155 million. Authorities said it was the
largest Chicago cocaine seizure in more than a decade and perhaps the
largest combined seizure of drugs and money in Chicago history.

Five people have been arrested so far, but authorities said they expect
more arrests.

An affidavit filed in the case paints a series of events and suspects that
eventually connected neatly. "It was like a jigsaw puzzle, and all of the
pieces fell into place at one time," Vanacora said.

The first one fell Monday, DEA Special Agent Charles Baumgartner said in
the affidavit. A wiretap on the cellular phone of a suspect detailed a
Tuesday delivery of 100 kilograms, or about 220 pounds, of cocaine, he
said. That led DEA agents Tuesday afternoon to a 100-kilogram stash inside
the garage of a Cicero home, records show. Surveillance and the suspects
also led to a nearby storage locker, where the agents found about 463
pounds of cocaine.

A car that had stopped at the storage center also got stopped by police in
Bedford Park. One of the occupants, Steve Webber, 29, admitted he was
working with a cousin who ran a cocaine operation out of his home in the
6100 block of South Kilpatrick, the affidavit says. Webber also lived
there.

Around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, DEA agents watching the home saw Webber's cousin,
Jesse Quintanilla, 29, exit with a duffle bag. Quintanilla admitted he had
about $5 million inside his home, Baumgartner said in his affidavit.

He also told authorities he was to pick up a huge shipment of cocaine at
Ortiz Produce Co., 2021 West 18th. On Wednesday morning, DEA agents found
1,265 kilograms of cocaine there inside a shipment of carrots Vanacora
said.

Arrested with Webber and Quintanilla wereDesi Cano, 46, of Wood Dale; Jorge
O'Conner, 31, of the 4600 block of West Altgeld; and Juan Manuel Perez, 39,
of Cicero.

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)