The Evanston Police Department and the Cook County Sheriff’s office arrested 21 people in a two-day sting for selling crack cocaine to undercover officers near Evanston Township High School, law enforcement officials said Thursday.
The Evanston, Skokie and Chicago residents whose ages ranged from 15 to 30 were charged with up to five counts of delivery of a controlled substance.
Under Illinois law, charges are automatically raised one felony criminal class for offenders charged with dealing drugs within 1,000 feet of a school, park or church.
“Anytime police can help get rid of drugs in the community, particularly around the high school, it does all of us a great service,” said ETHS spokeswoman Kathy Miehls.
Law enforcement officers began making arrests on Tuesday morning after a six-month investigation known as Operation CLEAN (Combined Law Enforcement Against Narcotics).
The Evanston Police Department Neighborhood Enforcement Team and the Cook County Sheriff’s Gang Crimes Unit worked together on the investigation to primarily target crack-cocaine dealers, Cunningham said.
Undercover officers were taped on hidden video cameras purchasing crack cocaine from street-level dealers in three areas of Evanston: the corner of Church Street and Dodge Avenue, adjacent to ETHS, 1600 Dodge Ave.; a park at Clyde Street and Brummel Avenue; and along Howard Street, said Bill Cunningham, a sheriff’s office spokesman.
During the investigation, sheriff’s officers bought crack cocaine about 60 times from 27 different offenders, including seven juveniles. The dealers sold rocks of cocaine for between $10 and $40, according to a press release from EPD.
In addition to the crack dealers, officers charged a 23-year-old Evanston man with possession of more than 30 grams of marijuana and a 21-year-old Evanston man was arrested because he was wanted on a warrant for cannabis in Ford County.
Cunningham said the sheriff’s officers posed as potential buyers because the dealers were less familiar with sheriff’s officers than Evanston police officers. EPD was responsible for trying to identify the dealers from the video tape and other means. Both EPD and the sheriff’s officers made the arrests.
“(Police officers) love it when there is some kind of raid,” said EPD Cmdr. Michael Perry said. “It shows some kind of enforcement actions being taken”
Police are still looking for more dealers, Cunningham said.
He said the cocaine dealers are low-level players in a larger organization of street gangs.
This is the fifth time that the sheriff’s office and EPD have worked together since July 1997. In previous operations, 70 people have been arrested and convicted, some serving between three and six years in prison.
Cunningham said more joint efforts with the sheriff’s office will take place in the near future.
Some of those arrested appeared before bond hearing at Circuit Court in Skokie.
