FEDS SEIZE A HOUSE IN MADISON

Federal authorities seized a Madison house Wednesday as part of a sweep
involving the arrest in Illinois of 20 suspected members of Chicago's Black
P Stone Nation street gang.

Arrests on charges of conspiring to sell cocaine and crack took place
across Chicago's south side and southern suburbs and in the northern suburb
of Evanston.

Federal agents said the roundup was based on a 2-year investigation.

Officials said the gang sold and distributed cocaine and crack on the south
side and suburbs. They declined to put a dollar figure on the operation.

Officials said the four-bedroom, four-bath home seized in Madison belonged
to Earl Berry, 40, whose main residence was in Chicago. They said they did
not know why he also owned a residence in Madison.

But Peter Freitag, lead agent at the FBI office in Madison, said officials
think that Berry simply preferred living here, in the $470,000 home he
bought in June 2000 at 9209 Bear Claw Way, on Madison's far West Side.

"The only thing we know is that apparently he decided it was nicer to live
and raise a family here than in Chicago," Freitag said.

Freitag said that even though Berry was a P Stone officer, he was not
directly connected to 11 other members of the Black P Stone Nation who were
indicted in federal court in Madison in February for distribution of crack
cocaine. Ten have been convicted, and the 11th , Rodney Raines, is still
awaiting trial.