Retired Chicago Police Officer Indicted in Rico Conspiracy with Members of Alleged Drug Distribution Ring

Retired Chicago Police Officer Indicted in Rico Conspiracy
with Members of Alleged Drug Distribution Ring
Members accused of engaging in murders, kidnappings, robberies and obstruction of justice

NOV 22 – November 22, 2010 – (Chicago) A retired Chicago police officer was arrested by DEA agents after he and three other new defendants were charged together with six previously charged defendants in an expanded federal racketeering (RICO) conspiracy indictment alleging acts of murder, kidnapping, robbery, narcotics distribution and obstruction of justice. A 10-count superseding indictment that was unsealed following three new arrests alleges two murders, six kidnappings and robberies, and three instances of distribution or attempted wholesale distribution of hundreds of kilograms of cocaine among a pattern of criminal activity spanning the decade from 1999 to 2009.

The arrests, which occurred on Friday, and charges were announced today by Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Jack Riley, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration, and Alvin Patton, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division in Chicago. The investigation was conducted under the umbrella of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF).

Glenn Lewellen, a Chicago police officer from 1986 to 2002, allegedly provided information about ongoing federal criminal investigations into the defendants’ activities to certain members and associates of an alleged criminal organization consisting of eight of the 10 defendants and directed by Saul Rodriguez, known as the “Rodriguez Enterprise,” according to the indictment, which was returned last Thursday by a federal grand jury. Rodriguez and the other five defendants previously charged were arrested in April 2009 when they allegedly conspired to steal hundreds of kilograms of purported cocaine from a warehouse in southwest suburban Channahon.

Lewellen, 54, of Las Vegas, was arrested late Friday in Las Vegas. He was charged with racketeering conspiracy and conspiracy to distribute cocaine. Lewellen was not charged with participating in either of the two alleged murders, but he was charged with participating in a 2003 kidnapping and robbery of 100 kilograms of cocaine and cash, as well as other alleged narcotics activities. He was expected to have an initial appearance at 3 p.m. today (Pacific time) in Federal Court in Las Vegas on the charges filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago.

The charges also allege that Lewellen obstructed justice to protect and conceal the Rodriguez Enterprise’s illegal activities, including testifying falsely in a federal criminal trial in December 1999. In May of this year, promptly after obtaining evidence establishing the alleged false testimony, federal prosecutors disclosed the information and asked for, and obtained, a judge’s order releasing the defendant in that case from prison and vacating his narcotics-related conviction.