CHICAGO -- Two police officers are suspected of manufacturing silencers, putting them on .22-caliber automatic pistols and selling them to mob hit men, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
The silencer-equipped guns were similar to those used in up to 20 mob murders across the nation, including the June 1975 slaying of mob boss Sam Giancana, the newspaper said in its Sunday editions.
Treasury agents with search warrants raided the home of Patrolman Richard Madeja Aug. 8.
Seized in the raid were a silencer-equipped .22-caliber automatic pistol, a similarly equipped .38-caliber machine gun, materials that could be used to manufacture additional silencers and a metal girder believed used in making silencers, the newspaper said. Madeja was suspended from duty Aug. 11.
Officer Joseph P. Ahrens, suspected of peddling the guns to mob hit men, resigned from the force Sept. 5 after he was questioned by federal agents in the case, the newspaper said.
Investigators said law enforcement officers do not use silencers and the only big market for such weapons would be mob hit men.
The type of silencers allegedly manufactured and sold by the two policemen leaves a distinct mark on bullets, investigators said. Almost all of the nearly 20 organized crime victims in recent years were killed with bullets bearing such markings, investigators told the Sun-Times.
In particular, authorities are concentrating on the seizure's possible link to five Chicago mob-related slayings, including that of Giancana, killed in his home with a silencer-equipped .22-caliber pistol.
