A reverse drug sting on the streets of Cicero came to a harrowing end this week with an undercover officer trading gunshots with a suspect who allegedly tried to flee a police net with hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of cocaine, authorities said Friday.
Cook County sheriff’s police set up the operation Thursday, authorities said, arranging to sell 30 kilograms of cocaine to a group of men they would meet at 23rd Street and Cicero Avenue. Prosecutors said four men showed up as the buyers just after 3 p.m., but they brought guns to the swap instead of the agreed-on $480,000.
After two of the men tested the drugs, one of them stuck a 9 mm handgun into the ribs of an undercover officer and tried to push him into the vehicle that police were using to carry the cocaine, Assistant State’s Atty. Barbara Plitz said. The officer grabbed for the pistol and, in an instant, there was an exchange of gunfire, authorities said.
The suspect “fired a shot, but the officer was not hit,” Plitz said. “Then the undercover officer drew his weapon and fired a shot, but [the suspect] was not hit.”
The gunman then jumped into the vehicle and tried to drive away, but other officers watching the exchange nearby flipped a remote “kill switch” that stopped it, Plitz said. All four men were arrested without further incident, authorities said, and were charged with attempted murder, armed violence and aggravated vehicular hijacking.
David Rodriguez, 43, of the 1800 block of West 50th Place, Chicago, was charged as the gunman. Judge Matthew Coghlan ordered him held on $4 million bail.
Juan Sarabia, 27, Placido Gonzalez, 39, and Marcos Torres, 27, all of Chicago, also were charged. The three were ordered held on $3 million bail.
If the men are able to post bail, the judge required them first to show the source of the bail funds.
The sting comes less than two weeks after a botched undercover sting in Chicago allowed a gang courier to escape with 93 pounds of cocaine.
That buy was set up by federal agents, sources have said, and a communication breakdown apparently led to the bait’s loss.
