Chicago Police made their largest heroin bust of the year late last week, seizing $1.5 million worth of the drug that was headed for street-gang sales on the North Side and in near west suburban Cicero, police announced Monday.
Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis said the seizure, which also included $5 million in cash, "dealt a huge blow" to the narcotics trade. Investigators said it's highly unusual to recover drugs and cash from drug sales in the same location.
"It was good timing by the officers," said Cmdr. Jim O'Grady of the narcotics division.
The drugs and cash were recovered July 2 from a home and adjoining garage in the 2500 block of North Kildare, investigators said. The home had been under surveillance, and police used an informant as part of the investigation, authorities said.
Charges were pending Monday against the only person found inside the North Kildare house at the time police entered, investigators said.
The bust comes less than a month after the release of a new report showing more people in Chicago and its suburbs are admitted to hospital emergency rooms for heroin use than in any other major American city.
In 2008, there were nearly 24,000 heroin-related hospital admissions in the Chicago area, according to the report, put together by Roosevelt University's Illinois Consortium on Drug Policy.