A drug raid netted more than $100,000 worth of items probably taken from Evanston homes during the past six months, police announced at a Thursday morning press conference.
The raid, conducted Feb. 15 at 1904 Emerson St., led to what might have been the largest seizure of potentially stolen property in the history of the Evanston Police Department, said Cmdr. James Elliot. Laptop computers, flat-screen TVs, iPods, digital cameras, jewelry, watches, game systems, drugs, five handguns, three shotguns and $52,000 cash represented just a portion of the seizure, which filled two cargo vans and took a team of officers five days to inventory.
“I was like, ‘Wow.’ Seriously, it’s a tremendous amount of property,” Elliot said.
The investigation also led to the arrest of two men who might have been involved in up to 20 burglaries in the North Shore area since August, Elliot said. A task force had been formed in November to investigate a rash of burglaries in the area.
Rengay Frazier, 36, and Allan Boyland, 42, both residents of 1904 Emerson St., were charged last Friday with unlawful use of weapon and unlawful possession of cannabis. Frazier was also charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver. Burglary charges might soon follow, Elliot said. The men will appear in the Skokie branch of Circuit Court at 9 a.m. Feb. 26.
Elliot also announced the Wednesday residential burglary arrest of Frazier’s brother, 43-year-old Andre Frazier, who lives on the 2100 block of Darrow Avenue.
The raid came after community complaints of drug activity at the property. Officers didn’t know they were about to stumble on thousands upon thousands of dollars in stolen property.
“They walked in and said, ‘Hmm, we’ve got something going on here,'” said Elliot, who said the burglary team was called in, and a second search warrant granted for the property. The next step is proving the items were stolen.
During the coming days, victims of recent burglaries will file into the Evanston Police Department, 1454 Elmwood Ave., in hopes of identifying their property. Victims from all North Shore suburbs are welcome to come to the station, Elliot said.
The raid was a collaboration of police officers from Evanston, Skokie and Wilmette, in addition to members of the North Regional Major Crimes Task Force.
The Evanston, Skokie and Wilmette police departments met in November to discuss a spike in area burglaries, police said. After noticing all the burglaries occurred at about the same time of day on the same days of the week, a task force was formed to investigate.
“Obviously all the police agencies involved want to unite the burglary victims with their stolen property,” Elliot said. “But just as important is the message that this has sent out. In these times of budget cuts … individual towns can’t isolate themselves and try to do everything on their own.”
The formalized partnerships formed by this crime wave will continue, he said.
Also speaking at the press conference, Evanston Police Chief Richard Eddington highlighted the importance of the task force’s efforts.
“Unless you have been the victim of a burglary or are a policeman, you have no idea the impact that has on a family’s perception of safety,” he said. “It’s through their efforts that part of that perception of safety has been restored.”
