Pubdate: Thu, 09 Jun 2005
Source: Peoria Journal Star ( IL )
Copyright: 2005sPeoria Journal Star
Contact:  http://pjstar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/338
Author: Mike Robinson, Associated Press

FEDS ROLL UP HEROIN-SELLING OPERATION

Water Department Employees In Chicago Among Those Charged

CHICAGO - Eight people, including two employees of Chicago's 
scandal-plagued water department and another city worker, were 
arrested Wednesday as federal investigators rolled up what they 
described as one branch of a Colombian drug-trafficking operation.

The water department itself, already awash in charges of bribery and 
other political corruption, was not charged with being part of the 
heroin distribution ring.  But investigators did find that department 
workers "were engaging in this kind of conduct during weekdays, 
during workdays, when they should not have been," U.S.  Attorney 
Patrick J.  Fitzgerald said at a news conference.

Federal officials said the ongoing investigation got under way in 
February with a tip from a government informant and could produce 
more arrests soon.

The charges came as a fresh blow to the administration of Mayor 
Richard M.  Daley, whose standing with voters has fallen as a result 
of corruption, according to the latest Chicago Tribune poll.  Daley 
immediately fired one of the city workers and started proceedings 
aimed at dismissal of the two others.

A number of water department employees - including the former first 
deputy commissioner, a longtime precinct captain in the Daley 
family's 11th Ward - have been charged with corruption involving the 
$38 million Hired Truck Program, which outsourced work to private 
trucking companies, some with mob ties.

Private truckers got work under the Hired Truck Program in exchange 
for bribes and campaign contributions, federal officials allege.

Fitzgerald emphasized that the heroin charges were not part of the 
Hired Truck investigation.  But he declined to say whether the 
initial tip that sparked the investigation came from anyone involved 
in the Hired Truck scandal.

Charged as the mastermind of the heroin-selling operation was George 
A.  Prado, 47, a water department hoisting engineer.  His 
brother-in-law, Anthony C.  Ritacco, 45, and water department worker 
Michael D.  Hart, 39, were charged with being members of the 
ring.  Ritacco is a seasonal cement mixer for the city transportation 
department.

A third water department employee is a cooperating witness in the 
case, officials said.

Defense attorney Joseph Lopez, representing Prado and Ritacco, said 
his clients would plead innocent but added that they would "sort out 
what the government has and plan how we are going to answer the 
charges." He said that thus far the case rests largely on hundreds of 
phone call intercepts.

Reminded that agents had also confiscated cocaine, he said: "I don't 
know who they are going to link that to." He said he had previously 
gotten Prado cleared of charges that he failed to obtain a firearms 
owners card and had also represented a Ritacco cousin who was charged 
with a state offense.

Defense attorney Eugene O'Malley, representing Hart, declined to comment.

Last week, Daley fired city water management commissioner Richard 
A.  Rice and nine water department workers after it was discovered 
that employees were being recorded as on duty at the city's Jardine 
Water Filtration Plant when they were not there.  One of those fired 
was John Briatta, the brother-in-law of Daley's own brother, Cook 
County Commissioner John Daley.

In the heroin investigation, those arrested in Chicago appeared 
Wednesday afternoon before U.S.  Magistrate Judge Nan Nolan who 
ordered them held in the Metropolitan Correctional Center pending 
bond hearings Thursday and Tuesday.

One of those charged in the investigation was arrested Wednesday in 
New York; seven were arrested in Chicago.

A ninth defendant, described as a drug courier, was quietly taken 
into custody a week ago after Prado allegedly discussed beating him 
and perhaps killing him for losing a kilogram of heroin when Illinois 
State Police stopped his vehicle for a speeding violation.

"He is safely in jail," Fitzgerald told reporters.

In rounding up the defendants, FBI agents confiscated 16 kilograms of 
cocaine, a quarter kilogram of heroin, a gun and $50,000 in cash, 
Fitzgerald said.

Federal officials described Prado as a high-level distributor who 
bought heroin in bulk from Colombia and sold it in 100-gram amounts 
to wholesalers who then passed it along to dealers.

The operation was described in four complaints totaling more than 100 
pages.  Two telephone taps were used to gather evidence, according to 
federal officials.

Even after the heroin was taken from the courier's truck on May 24, 
the distribution ring stayed in operation, federal officials 
said.  They said the most recent transfer of drugs took place just 
two days before FBI agents and Chicago police moved in to make the arrests.

"Obviously that is very brazen," Fitzgerald said.