Chicago Tribune
COUNTRY CLUB HILLS, Ill. — Three people were arrested in connection with the confiscation of $5 million in cocaine from a home in south suburban Country Club Hills, Cook County sheriff’s police said Monday.
Bail on Monday was set at $1 million each for Candace Keough, 29, and Brandon Roy, 28, both of Gary, Ind., and Desere Howard, 24, of St. Paul, Minn., who were each charged with one count of possession with intent to distribute cocaine, police said.
Because none of the three was from Illinois, sheriff’s police believe the house might have served as a distribution point for drugs in Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana and Ohio. The investigation is still ongoing, police said.
Acting on information obtained from an unrelated investigation, sheriff’s narcotics officers Friday morning were led to a home in the 3700 block of 168th Street in Country Club Hills.
“Surveillance of the home throughout the day showed activity consistent with narcotics trafficking,” sheriff’s police said in a statement.
About 3 p.m. Friday, Keough and Roy left the house in a silver Jeep Cherokee. Not far way, police stopped the sport-utility vehicle and found 25 kilograms of cocaine in a hidden compartment in the rear hatch area, police said.
Howard left the same home about an hour later in a gold Mercury Mountaineer. She was stopped by police, who found an additional 24 kilograms of cocaine in a secret compartment beneath a rear seat, according to police.
The three were then taken into custody.
The next morning, police executed a search warrant at the home, where they found one room set up with money-counting machines, and a laundry room set up for repackaging drugs and cutting, a street term that refers to the process of diluting drugs with another substance, police said.
A fake wall where illegal drugs were believed to be stored was discovered by police in an upstairs bedroom closet, police said. The space was empty, but an additional kilogram of narcotics was found hidden beneath a nightstand in the same room.
Also confiscated were two loaded guns, a kilogram of marijuana with an estimated street value of $10,000 and $6,500 in cash, police said.
Police also seized a surveillance system in the house, complete with multiple plasma televisions and hidden cameras used to monitor all outdoor activity around the home, they said.
If convicted, Keough, Roy and Howard could each face 6 to 30 years in prison. The three are scheduled to appear in the Markham Courthouse at 9 a.m. Feb. 11.
Copyright 2008 The Chicago Tribune